The Iola High School band is heading to New York City next week to see some historical and entertaining sights as well as put on two performances for two community homes for the aged.
“It allows us to perform and show that we are a band and not just on vacation” Band Director Rober McGuire said.
The band was able to raise the entire cost of the trip, “just around $50,000,” McGuire said, through donations, bake-a-thons, pasta sales, and even an evening of jazz.
McGuire was very thankful to the community for all of the help given.
“We couldn’t have done it without the community’s support,” he said.
McGuire, who will not be returning to IHS for a second year, said the students would not be the only ones gaining important life experiences from the upcoming trip.
“It is not often that in your first year of teaching you get to take a trip like this,” McGuire said. “This experience has been amazing.”
In addition to McGuire’s personal sentiments toward the trip, he expects “it also will give New York a chance to learn about the town of Iola, Kansas,” he said.
While in New York the students will visit major landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Time Square, Ground Zero, Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller Plaza.
They also will see a Broadway show, “The Phantom of the Opera”, which ranks top of the list of things-to-do for senior tenor saxophone player, Holly Schomaker. She also is excited to experience the culture of the city.
“It will be very interesting to see how the people act in New York,” Schomaker said.
Though the trip is exciting for all the students “every student will take away something different,” McGuire said. “It could be such an educational trip for all of them. This trip will also build camaraderie among the band.”
Being able to perform out of the town of Iola is also an appealing aspect of the trip for the students.
“It will bring the band a lot closer because we will have more experiences than the concerts that we do around here,” Schomaker said.
For a few of the students, this trip will mean experiencing more of the country.
“I am most excited about being in a new place and seeing how big the world is,” Jordan Strickler, senior tenor saxophone, player said. “All my life I have known a town of about 6,000 people and now I am going to see a city of millions.” (good pull quote)
