WVHS marching band returns after successful performances in NYC

Members of the West Valley High School marching band and color guard were getting back to normal on Tuesday after their six-day trip to the Big Apple to play before hundreds of thousands of spectators.

The students and band director said the trip was a moving experience that went beyond their two performances there.

“It was really unbelievable,” said Taylor Roderick, a senior drum major.

The 75-member band performed in the annual New York City Veterans Day Parade on Friday and then at a Band of Pride Tribute show the next day at Times Square.

The group was invited more than a year ago and spent the intervening time planning out every detail, said band director Jim Loucks.

Along with the two performances, band members and chaperones had a full schedule of tours and a dinner cruise on the Hudson River.

On Tuesday, Loucks asked band members to write up their thoughts on visiting the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.

“I want you to do some soul searching today,” Loucks said of the post-trip exercise.

“It gave me a sense of pride and patriotism,” said Michael Adamson, a senior drum major.

The Sept. 11 memorial “was a real tug on the heartstrings,” he said.

The oldest band members were no more than toddlers during Sept. 11, and others had not been born.

Through the course of the visit, the band was immersed in New York diversity, at one point watching through the doors of a mosque where worshippers were praying in silence, Loucks said.

“It gave them something they would never learn in the classroom,” he said.

The band met a group called the Michigan City Soul Steppers and ended up doing a joint performance with them as part of their parade warmups.

That evening on the dinner cruise, the Soul Steppers were on the same boat and gave the West Valley kids a lesson in dance moves.

Late Saturday night, Loucks took his senior band members on a walk through Times Square to get a closer look at late-night New York culture.

One of the biggest surprises may have been the outburst of protests that came with Tuesday’s election of Donald Trump, Loucks said.

The students had a front row seat, literally.

The protests were already underway when their transfer bus from the airport cruised past Trump Tower, which was being protected by guards and dump trucks filled with sand or rock while protesters chanted.

The protests they witnessed were peaceful. Loucks said he told the kids that peaceful political expresssion is one of the great things about American democracy.

The trip as a learning experience, Loucks said, “went well beyond the musical notes.”

The group departed by bus on the morning of the election, Nov. 8. and then caught a late flight out of Seattle, arriving in New York at 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

They arrived back in Spokane on Sunday evening after a 3 a.m. wakeup call at their Manhattan Hotel at Times Square where they stayed for four nights.

As part of the preparations, Loucks contacted the Transportation Security Administration in advance and won a sponsorship from Alaska Airlines to cover baggage fees for their instruments and other luggage.

He had the students smartly dressed in matching warmups with matching bags for the flights as well as their dress uniforms for the parade and a more casual uniform for the band tribute the next day.

As a result of the preparation, the trip went smoothly, he said.

The parade featured 300 marching units from 30 states, including groups from colleges, high schools, and military and veterans units, plus 200 floats and vehicles.

During the parade the band played “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

At the tribute on Saturday, they played patriotic songs including an arrangement of “Taps.”

The West Valley students wore replica dog tags as part of their parade uniforms.

Loucks said he was told by a guest conductor that the West Valley group was the best-prepared high school band that weekend.

Prior to the trip, the students created a wall of honor for veterans with photos of family members who have been in military service.

A $100,000 fundraising drive helped support the cost, which was $1,500 per student, including airfare.

In one of the only down sides to the trip, a number of students reportedly had fallen behind on other classwork. Loucks urged them to get caught up, but to be proud of what they accomplished.

“This is big time for this high school,” he told his band class Tuesday.

“It was a fun experience with the different cultures,” senior Roderick said.

“Everything is a lot bigger than I thought it would be.”