Band honors veterans through parade

Jonah Evarts, Sports Editor

The sound of trumpets, tubas, saxophones and drums could be heard all down Poyntz for the twenty-fifth annual Veterans Day Parade. Manhattan High School marching band was among the bands that marched during the parade. The parade is in place to honor veterans and the service military members have given to the community. The marching band plays every year at the parade, along with other bands and elementary schools.

“We represent the band alongside with quite a few other groups of people,” senior drum major Kathy Burton said. “It’s a really big part of the community to show respect for veterans. We go down and we play ‘God Bless America’ every year, and it’s really cool.”

This year was a tough march, as the band walked through bitter cold for the parade. It reached as low as 34 degrees fahrenheit in the duration of their trek throughout Manhattan.

“Weather will always be a problem with any outdoor event,” Burton said. “But the band is used to it, we have our own early morning practices in the cold all the time.”

It did slightly impair some students abilities to play, as fingers got stiff and it was tough to play the instrument.

“Our fingers were really cold,” freshman Talia Clanton said. “It makes it hard to play when they freeze like that.”

The march was one of the band’s first parades of the year, making it more significant as it is a chance for new members to have the experience and enjoy themselves.

“It’s one our first parades [of the year],” Clanton said. “It’s important to freshmen in the band and helps us with being prepared.”

The band will continue to march in the Veteran’s Day Parade for coming years because of its importance to the community, and the importance they get to exemplify.

“It’s always really fun to be a part of,” Burton said. “We get to be part of an important event, and it honors people who have served in a good way.”