Chimacum High School band surprised with chance to perform in D.C.

As word spread of a big announcement at Chimacum High School’s annual Veterans Day celebration this week, students started guessing.

A trip to a Disney theme park? Would they need a lot of gas money to get to wherever they were heading?

The big news: The high school’s Cowboys marching band will participate in next year’s National Independence Day Parade in Washington, D.C., to mark the country’s 250th birthday.

Chimacum School District officials say the school, in rural Jefferson County, is the only one in the state that will be part of what they described as a once-in-a-generation event. It will be the first trip to the nation’s capital for some of the students.

“It was definitely a big shock,” said Mikhail Groth, 15, a sophomore drum major who plays the saxophone and will conduct the band for what might be his biggest audience ever along the parade route on Constitution Avenue.

“I know it won’t fully sink in until we actually get off that plane, get off those buses, get into the uniforms … and get on the parade route. But it’s still so shocking and a really big honor.”

Jacklyn Hirschel, 14, described waiting for the big announcement as “a whole roller coaster of emotions.”

“It just seems like such an amazing opportunity for our small band, seeing as we’re the only band (from Washington) that gets to go there,” said Hirschel, who plays the clarinet. “It’s really exciting.”

Superintendent Scott Mauk, who leads the 671-student district, said the selection is a really big deal for the school, district and community. A host of elected officials from the region attended Monday’s announcement.

“It means that our community will have a footprint at the 250th celebration of the country,” he said. “That feels like a really big deal to me. … We really think people are going to embrace it and get behind it and be excited about it.”

The news comes as the district is rebuilding its music program. Enrollment decline, starting before the pandemic, and budget cuts have meant fewer music offerings. There is only one music teacher in the entire district, and the band program now starts in 7th grade. Drumline, which was once a class during the school day, is now offered after school.

But the program has been on an upswing under director Daniel Ferland, the first in recent years to stay for more than a year after starting in 2024. The band, for example, won the best band of the day out of 25 in this year’s Loyalty Days Parade in Long Beach, Pacific County, and several students have racked up individual musical honors.

With the resurgence, Ferland said he was looking to restart a pre-COVID tradition where the band would take a big out-of-state trip. Over the summer, he applied to three or four parades.

“I threw in Washington, D.C., as a lark just to see what would happen,” he said. “And you know what, they contacted us back.”

Students and faculty members said Chimacum, a small, rural district, was just what the parade organizers were looking for.

Groth and Layton Lopeman, 14, who plays percussion, think the band’s recent accolades were huge points in their favor.

“In general, we’ve shown real passion and talent, but (also) commitment to music as an art,” Groth said.

Now, the band has an opportunity “to display our skills and talents on a national scale,” Lopeman said.

For Ferland, the excitement is mixed with apprehension about the preparation for the big day. That will include lots of practice, new songs, and getting the instruments into tiptop shape. The school also has to get a color guard up and running and ready to perform by July.

“We will definitely do extra practices to make sure that we look and sound good,” Ferland said.

But there is another big hurdle: raising about $100,000 to send about 40 students and adult chaperones to Washington. In addition to transportation, Ferland will have to rent some instruments – it is not easy to cart a drum, tuba or saxophone across the country on a commercial flight.

The group may also have to get new uniforms. The Cowboys’ vintage blue and white wool and leather outfits, painstakingly maintained over decades, might not be the best attire for students in Washington, D.C.’s famously humid summers.

Despite the high price to participate, Ferland and others said they can count on the community to step up. Chime In, the band’s booster club, is leading fundraising. Within 24 hours of the announcement, the group had raised more than $2,500 through individual donations, according to communications director Justin Jackson.

“I think it’s going to be life-changing for a lot of these kids,” Ferland said. “They are just going to really flourish this year as they start to understand the gravity of what they are doing representing the community and the entire state.”