LITTLE ROCK — Ask members of the Beebe High School Band what was most memorable about their recent trip to Walt Disney World Resort, and most of them would probably say winning the Golden Mickey Award.
The adventure began on the morning of March 16, as band members boarded buses that took them to Orlando, Fla., to compete in Festival Disney.
Competing with 50 bands from all over the country, the 106-member Beebe band took a superior rating for its performance, winning the competition.
“I didn’t play a note,” Beebe Band Director Mickey Cox said. “It was all them.”
Although this is the first time the Beebe High School Band has won the superior rating or the Golden Mickey Award, Jacey Sites, a sophomore at Beebe High, said Cox has a good reputation at the competition.
After an 18-hour bus ride - during which the kids appropriately watched Disney movies - and changing into their uniforms in a parking lot, the band gave the performance of a lifetime.
“We even ate breakfast in our uniforms,” junior Carly Jackson said.
One of senior Stormy Taylor’s best memories was warming up in the prop room with a lot of the propsfrom Disney movies, and she said the band members formed closer bonds on the trip.
Senior Blake Defani said he wasn’t surprised that the band won the competition, but he said the entire band screamed when the winner was announced.
Several of the band members, who were sitting in the band hall recounting the trip, began to laugh when someone mentioned that Beebe was mispronounced at the competition as “Beeb” High School.
“Yeah, we were known as ‘Beeb’ the whole time,” Carly said with a laugh.
When Cox, who has served as the Beebe band’s director for 26 years, went forward to receive the award on behalf of the band, he had a bit of a mishap, too.
“I went over to Mickey Mouse to get the trophy and held it up for the band to see, and I dropped it and it shattered,” he said. “I said, ‘Oh mygosh! We finally won, and I broke it.’”
Luckily, Mickey Mouse was prepared, because the band was able to take home a replacement trophy.
“They gave me the replacement in a padded box,” Cox said with a laugh.
Disney officials weren’t unhappy about Cox’s butterfingers. In fact, because the presentation was being shown live on Disney television, Cox said he was told they like it when things like that happen.
After winning the competition, band members had some time to have fun at Disney World before boarding the buses Tuesday for the 18-hour drive home.
Staff writer Jeanni Brosius can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or jbrosius@arkansasonline.com.
Three Rivers, Pages 49 on 04/19/2012