The Herbert Hoover High School Huskies marching band led the morning parade at Walt Disney World in Orlanda, Florida, on April 3. Photo courtesy Kanawha County Schools.
By: Clint Thomas, Metro Staff | Posted: April 23, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail Kanawha Metro
In June 2016, as torrential floodwaters annihilated the band room, its contents and, in fact, the entirety of Herbert Hoover High School along the banks of the Elk River, no band member probably considered the ebullient saying/slogan “I’m going to Disney World!” as a serious reply to what he or she would do after the ruinous waters subsided.
But, nearly two years later, the HHHS Marching Huskies Band stepped off in a parade at the Orlando, Florida-area wonderland.
The Marching Huskies were chosen to march in the Disney Performing Arts Parade after submitting an audition tape. A fundraising committee was put together swiftly after the band received notice of an invitation to play at Walt Disney World. Band members raised thousands of dollars to subsidize the weeklong trip taken during the Kanawha County Schools Spring Break.
“I had to submit a video of us performing from last year’s band,” HHHS Music and Band Director Maleah Fisher explained. “I received notification on Aug. 30 that we had been accepted. That was pretty exciting.
“I took a screenshot of the notification from the email,” she said, “and I put it on the Smartboard for the kids to read — to get more of a reaction out of them.”
In December, Fisher learned which day and parade in which the Huskies were scheduled to perform; it was a bit of an upgrade in the Magic Kingdom from what she had been told originally.
The Marching Huskies played a patriotic medley and an upbeat number during their April 3 performance.
“It was a labor of love to get all of the kids down there,” Fisher said. “All of the 36 kids in the program got to go.”
The band members, their classmates, parents and community rallied to make the Disney World adventure a reality.
“We made and sold 8,600 pepperoni rolls,” Fisher said. “We held the typical fundraisers — selling Hoover gear, coupon books, citrus fruits. Parents sold things like hot root beer floats at games. We received some very generous donations from different people so some kids who were financially strapped could go.”
And the Magic Kingdom was, indeed, part of a magical week for the Hoover youths.
“It was an amazing trip, a trip of a lifetime for the kids. Some of them had never seen the ocean; we went to Cocoa Beach one day. Some had never been to an amusement park that big. It was an exciting time to represent our community,” Fisher said.
“The Disney people were talking to me about two weeks before we went down,” she recounted. “One of the coordinators asked if we wanted to wear ‘Mouse Ears’ or our uniform hats. I told her we’d be wearing our uniform hats, and, during that conversation, I just barely mentioned the flood.
“When we got there, all of a sudden, a lady comes up to me and says, ‘We want to know your story. We did a little research and learned this is quite an adventure for you to pull off.’
“I told the kids before we marched, ‘We really shouldn’t be here, considering losing everything the way we did.’ It’s amazing that we able to do what we did and get back on our feet. I’ve been saying it’s a Cinderella story, and it really is,” Fisher said.
Metro reporter Clint Thomas can be reached at cthomas@cnpapers.com or by calling 304-348-1232.
