About 80 members of Central High's Stereophonic Storm of the Mid South marching band and flagline will return to Little Rock today after participating in events marking the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
The trip that started Nov. 23 for the Little Rock students and their 40 adult companions centered on performances Friday in the annual Waikiki Holiday Parade along Waikiki Beach, and at concerts at the U.S.S. Missouri and the Arizona Memorial Museum, both of which are at Pearl Harbor. There were also hiking swimming and touring.
"The best part of the trip for me was just seeing the look on their faces every time we saw something new," Central High band director Brice Evans said Tuesday as students packed up for their flights home. "It was obvious from looking at them and listening to them interact that they appreciated the trip."
The parade was begun in 1998 as an annual event to honor survivors of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan. The attack led the United States to declare war on Japan and enter World War II.
The night-time parade featured floats, 30 or more high school bands and Pearl Harbor attack survivors who waved to the crowd from convertibles, Evans said.
[EMAIL UPDATES: Sign up for free breaking news alerts and other email updates]
"We got lucky," he said. "There were three or four survivors sitting at the beginning of the parade lineup. All of our band students got to walk by them, shake their hands and thank them. That was something that we weren't expecting but it was a really neat experience for them."
The Central High band played the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" for the parade, and several other pieces at the two concerts at Pearl Harbor, including "God Bless America," "God Bless the USA," and a medley of the theme songs for each branch of the Armed Forces. Other pieces included selections from or about the World War II era such as "Swing, Swing, Swing," "I'll Be Seeing You," and the "Saint Louis Blues March."
The trip for the Central High band and flagline was about three years in the making, starting with its participation in President Barack Obama's 2013 inauguration ceremonies.
Evans said the band's trip to Washington, D.C., likely attracted notice from the Waikiki Holiday Parade planners who issued the invitation. That kickstarted a long, multi-faceted effort to raise about $300,000 for the trip, he said. None of the students who went on the Washington, D.C., trip are still in high school and so did not make the Hawaii trip even though they helped with the fundraising. Some of the Hawaii trip-takers were in seventh grade when the planning for the trip began.
"We're just so proud of them," said Central High Principal Nancy Rousseau, who has been in frequent contact with the travelers. "It took them two years to raise the money. Any child who wanted to go got to go, by hook or by crook. It's pretty amazing."
Metro on 11/30/2016