Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008 | 7:04 p.m.
To help:
Call 799-0950 or visit www.showtix4u.com, click on Nevada, and click on the parade donation link beneath Green Valley High School Band.
Henderson shoppers may get a lot more than they bargained for when they go shopping during the holidays.
The students of Green Valley High School's marching band are planning impromptu concerts around town to help send more than 100 students to Washington, D.C., Jan. 20 to perform in President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration parade, an honor bestowed on only a few bands from each state. Green Valley is the only Nevada school invited.
"I started screaming and jumping, I was so excited," Shannon Horn, 18, said.
She heard the news Friday while leaving campus, the clarinet section leader said. She then sent a mass text message to many of her bandmates to make sure they also knew the school had been chosen.
The students recently went to Rome for a performance, but the idea of performing in the inauguration parade is much more exciting, they said.
What band Director Diane Koutsulis wants, she usually gets, Caity Camp, 16, said, so she never doubted the band would be one of the chosen few.
"I always thought we were going to make it," Camp said.
This will be the second time Green Valley has performed in an inauguration parade, Koutsulis said. The first was during Bill Clinton's inauguration, 16 years ago. Alumni from that experience have been getting in touch with Koutsulis since they heard the news to offer their congratulations and share how great their memories were, she said.
Joey Semel, 16, said he looks forward to creating a similar memory.
"Just the historic aspect of it, it's exciting," the alto saxophone section leader said.
The cost will average $1,000 per student, or more than $120,000 for every student to get there, Koutsulis said.
"They've known, we would either attend the parade or go on a spring band trip, so they've been saving their pennies," she said.
The students will learn new arrangements for the performance, specifically a patriotic medley and "Viva Las Vegas," to bring a taste of home to Washington.
"There's no 'Viva Henderson' or we would have gone with that," Koutsulis said with a laugh.
Frances Vanderploeg can be reached at 990-2660 or [email protected].
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