Franklin Regional Panther Marching Band students loaded onto several buses around 2 a.m. in early December, the first leg of a lengthy journey to Hawaii.
The band had a chance to perform in the annual Pearl Harbor Day Parade and also to play in the shadow of the USS Arizona Memorial on Pearl Harbor Day.
“It was an incredible experience just to be next to the ship, and we got to play for visitors and all our friends and family who came to support us,” said student Ashley Giles.
Jules Landsberg, one of FR’s three drum majors, said the band spent a good deal of time “learning and perfecting the music to get it where we wanted.”
But the trip wasn’t all hard work. Students had a chance to tour the Dole plantation and get a taste of Dole Whip, the icy confection sold only in Hawaii, and at Disney resorts in Florida and California.
“We were going to visit the North Shore beach, and it was beautiful, but there was a lot of wind and the waves were insane,” said drum major Max Morton. “It was super-dangerous and no one was in the water at all, but we did get some beautiful photos.”
The band visited the P0lynesian Cultural Center and took a ride in a Hawaiian-style double canoe on a small lake in the middle of the center.
Drum major Jack Krieger said one of the things he noticed was the sand in Hawaii.
“It’s an odd detail, but it was the softest sand I’ve ever felt,” Krieger said.
Band director Nick Nutter praised students’ leadership throughout the trip.
“I can’t say enough about their professionalism and citizenship as we traveled so far,” Nutter said. “We got a ton of compliments on how they carried themselves.”
