Band directors Todd Hollis and James Hollingsworth planned a band trip to the Kansas City area to compete in the Music in the Park Festival May 4.
“Our band trip includes a performance at Platte County High School, then some free time at Worlds of Fun,” Hollingsworth said.
The band will perform in front of nationally known judges, where they will listen and give critiques.
“Getting that opportunity to go and perform in front of judges of that caliber is really special,” Hollingsworth said. “It’s not something that every band gets to do.”
Hollis and Hollingsworth have taken bands on similar trips in previous years, but increased costs made these trips harder to plan.
“When I used to go every year, it was only $40 per student,” Hollingsworth said. “Now, it’s $100 per student.”
Hollis and Hollingsworth held fundraisers to help students pay the fee for the trip.
“The first fundraiser we did, which was during first semester, to help students raise money was braids, which are these frozen pastries that were made right here in Kansas, and it was very, very successful,” Hollingsworth said. “The second fundraiser we did was selling trash bags, and it wasn’t as successful.”
These fundraisers allowed students to avoid having to pay the fee out of their own pockets. Senior Sawyer Jones, even though he was busy during the fundraisers, helped hand out the braids during pickup day.
“I liked that there was an opportunity to do the fundraisers,” senior Sawyer Jones said. “It’s a great way to help fund the trip.”
The band directors dealt with another problem other than the trip fee.
“Scheduling our performance time was interesting,” Hollingsworth said. “It’s based on a first come first served basis. If I waited even just a couple of hours, we wouldn’t have gotten as good of a performance time.”
The band’s student leadership team, along with Hollis and Hollingsworth, selected certain music pieces to perform during the performance.
“We put so much effort into preparing these songs,” junior Travis Casteel said. “I know our performance will turn out great.”
Casteel is excited about the Worlds of Fun part of the festival.
“I’ve never been there before, and I’m not a big roller coaster person, but I know I’m going to be on every single ride,” Casteel said. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime trip, especially for me.”
Sophomore Harley Williams looks forward to the trip as well.
“I can’t wait to ride all the different rides,” Williams said. “I think it’s great we get a chance to have fun after the performance.”
Hollingsworth views the trip as a reward to the band for their hard work.
“I think the band is going to have a blast,” Hollingsworth said. “We’ve got such a good group and we’ve had such a great year that I think we’re going to do very well in the performance part of the festival.”
