LAUREL, Neb. (KTIV) - A Northeast Nebraska high school marching band will perform on a big stage this weekend. The Laurel-Concord-Coleridge Bears Marching Band will march in the Chicago Memorial Day Parade.
“I’m coming to the end of my career here,” said Patti Beyeler, who has been band director for the Bear Marching Band for 23 years. “I wanted to make sure that this group of kids was able to go and experience something like this. They’ll be making memories that’ll last a lifetime. It means everything in the world to me.”
The LCC Marching Band is getting in its final rehearsals ahead of the Chicago Memorial Day Parade.
“We started the song this fall and we’ve been practicing every morning,” said the marching band‘s lead alto saxophone player, Kolten Settje. “We’d go outside, walk for about a mile or so, and here we are now in the spring and we’re marching just as much, same course, same everything.”
That song, “Arrivo Banda!” holds special meaning to drum major Emma Sohler, who’s in her final year with the program.
“I joined marching band because they performed this song when I was in 7th grade; I wasn’t even in marching band yet,” said Sohler. “This song that we’re playing this year is the reason I decided to join marching band, and it’s kind of ironic that I’m the drum major while we’re doing this song again and going to Chicago.”
Once they were selected to perform in the parade, the marching band still had to raise $50,000 in order to make the trip. So they spent the better part of a year raising money.
“There were people that were almost bothered by how much I was asking for fundraising stuff,” said Sohler. “We were constantly fundraising all year.”
After months of practicing and thousands of dollars of fundraising, this small-town Nebraska...
After months of practicing and thousands of dollars of fundraising, this small-town Nebraska marching band will be performing in Chicago for a Memorial Day Weekend Parade.(KTIV)
“There were a lot of different fundraisers,” said Settje. “Whenever I got my sheet, I’d walk around the block and ask people if they wanted to donate, my mom would help out, and put it on Facebook. We got a lot of names, a lot of numbers, and a lot of donations, too.”
The 30-member marching band will represent Northeast Nebraska on the streets of Chicago this Saturday, May 24.
“It’s going to be cool, we’re from small town Nebraska, and it’s a big parade. It’s going to be an awesome experience to say I’ve been to Chicago in the parade playing in the band, it’ll be a nice opportunity,” said Settje.
The LCC marching band will depart for Chicago on Friday. The parade itself is scheduled to start at noon the following day.
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