Lawton Chiles High School
Tallahassee, Florida
It was spring break. We were traveling by charter bus to NY. The three days included a concert by the NY Phil, seeing Newsies on Broadway, and performing on the deck of the Intrepid.
The Norman High School Band was heading to a state regional marching contest when one of our charter buses caught fire about 30 miles from our destination. Fortunately, nobody was hurt. We safely removed all of the students from the bus and within minutes it was burned to the ground. The students voted that the show would go on, and chose to perform without uniforms, using borrowed instruments. In spite of this tragedy, the band performed and received superior ratings. We saved a hubcap from the bus and it is now mounted in the band building. It serves as a reminder that a bad situation turned good and that our band family persevered.
Have you taken your school music groups on the road in the past year or two? How did it go? What did you and/or your students learn from the experience? What was the best part? The good, the bad, the funny, the life-affirming, and the death-defying, SBO wants to hear about it! Share your travel experience in 250 words or less for the chance to be included in an exciting new feature that will be debuting in an upcoming issue of SBO magazine.