Ark Valley News - Highly anticipated band trip to D.C. canceled

Highly anticipated band trip to D.C. canceled
By Chris Strunk
Last Updated: April 09, 2020

It wasn't a surprise, but it was no less devastating.

The Valley Center High School marching band's trip to Washington, D.C., has been canceled.

The final decision came from the American Veterans Center, which canceled all National Memorial Day events in Washington, D.C., due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Obviously, it was heartbreaking," said Jan Verboom, the band's co-director. "We totally understand and agree with the decision, realizing what our nation and world is dealing with. It's a priority to keep our kids safe. The kids and parents have worked so hard to make this happen, and to see it canceled was a hard life's lesson in dealing with disappointment."

Co-director Amanda Jolly said she and Verboom had a sliver of hope that the trip wouldn't be canceled.

"It goes without saying that we're all feeling pretty heartbroken about this news," she said. "Jan and I weren't necessarily surprised, given the way everything is being canceled across the country, but we still held out a little bit of hope, and that's gone now. It's just really hard for everyone right now. W all felt a profound sense of loss when school buildings were closed down for the year, and now this is added on top of it. We really feel for our senior class, especially. This was supposed to be one of their last big events of their high school career, and now that's gone."

The band was nominated by Sen. Pat Roberts to perform in the parade, and Valley Center was chosen in late May 2019.

"This was the first opportunity for our kids to perform on a national level in a world-wide event," Verboom said. "We feel especially devastated for our seniors. The plan was to formally begin our "second marching season" returning from spring break along with keeping our concert ensembles going. After all the years of teaching kids, I felt such a rush of triumph for our students when selected last May, representing our community and state, to feeling a tremendous loss of opportunity."

Since last spring, students and the Valley Center Band Aide booster club have been raising money for the trip. Many organizations and businesses in the community contributed to the cause. Most of the 126 students who were planning to go had already contributed more than $1,000 each.

Verboom said the Music Travel Company, which was arranging plans for the group, offered the option of rolling the trip and performance over to next May. Returning students and their parents are being asked to complete a survey to determine their interest in moving forward.

"The refunding situation will be worked out for our seniors, along with some other student situations that may be concerns," Verboom said. "… This is such a hard time for all of us, but we will return and move on from this at some point. We will not be giving up on that. We have too good of kids."

Jolly said there were many people and organizations to thank for the support.

"We would like to send a sincere thank you to our community, our Band Aide organization, our band parents, and our students," she said. "The way Valley Center has rallied around us and this endeavor has shown the best of how small towns support each other. Over the course of the year, we received countless emails, phone calls and messages asking us what we needed, how close we were to our fundraising goals, and what else could businesses and individuals do to help us out. We received donations from community organizations, from businesses, from VC alumni, and in a very humbling instance, from a parent of a deceased VC band alumni who knew their son would be so excited about what the Valley Center High School Band had achieved. Our Band Aide organization worked tirelessly all year to help raise funds, from organizing car washes to shoe drives to the Dinaucert and to our Fun Run in early March. We had kids and parents step up and help make all these events happen, all because this common goal united us. We are so blessed, and it is so true that we are truly better when we are all together."