High-school bands to play Pearl Harbor
Ariz. will be represented at 75th anniversary of attack
Natan Simon scanned the email, an invitation for the Shadow Mountain High School band to travel for a performance.
It appeared to be a mass mailing, the sort marching-band directors receive periodically. Some require financial commitments to travel; others offer little in the way of education or musical experience.
This one looked expensive. Travel to Hawaii, it beckoned, to be part of the 75th anniversary events at Pearl Harbor.
He noticed the email began with “Hi, Natan,” a more personal approach than usual, and he thought, “Oh, they got their tech figured out.”
But Hawaii? Simon’s band had not ventured out of Arizona in his five years as director. This was just another expensive trip his students and school couldn’t afford. He deleted the email. A few days later, a second email arrived with the same invitation. Simon read it more closely. It was from a retired Marine master gunnery sergeant who was writing on behalf of the Pearl Harbor Memorial Parade committee. Simon realized the email was personal. The committee had sought out Shadow Mountain. It wanted the band to represent Arizona in the annual Pearl Harbor Day parade.
“I called,” said Simon, seated in the band room at the north Phoenix school. “It turned out there were some former military musicians who suggested Shadow Mountain.”
The band would represent Arizona and the USS Arizona, one of the battleships that sank in the Japanese bombing raid on Dec. 7, 1941. The itinerary would include a parade the evening of Dec. 7 and visits to the Arizona, the USS Missouri and other historical sites.
There was a catch. The trip would cost about $150,000 — about $1,800 for each student — to fly the band and the equipment to Honolulu. Simon knew not every family could afford that amount, especially families with more than one member in the band, but he didn’t want to leave anyone behind. So he and the band boosters, the most dedicated of the parents, began working on a plan to raise the money. If they succeeded, the 60 members of the band would make the trip. If they fell short, they would all stay home.
“We use the phrase ‘once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’ a lot,” Simon said. “But this may be truly that for these seniors. So we decided to tackle this full force.”
More than just a trip
Across town in Glendale, George Hattendorf had received a similar invitation. He had taken the Mountain Ridge High School band to Pearl Harbor for the 70th anniversary in 2011 and knew when it was over that he wanted to return. When the invitation came, Hattendorf accepted.
“It was that moving an experience for everyone involved,” he said. “It becomes more than just a trip. We’re not going to Hawaii; we’re going to Pearl Harbor.”
The band will march in the Waikiki Holiday Parade on Nov. 25 and perform at several other events leading up to the 75th-anniversary commemoration. Hattendorf wants his students to come away from the trip with a deeper understanding of the history of an event their parents don’t even remember.
“They’ll be introduced to some notpretty things,” said Hattendorf, the band director at Mountain Ridge since 2005. “But war is not pretty.”
Mountain Ridge fields a large band from its north Glendale campus, close to 200 members at full strength. Hattendorf expects to take about 150 students at a cost of about $500,000. Fundraising for the trip is underway, as are preparations for the performances.
“Our year is usually pretty busy, with festivals and competitions,” said Sydney Van Dusen, a clarinet player who will start her senior year in the fall. “We decided together that to go to Hawaii was in the best interests of the band.”
‘Do something amazing’
From the start, the Shadow Mountain Band Boosters in Phoenix knew they would need to get creative if they were to meet their fundraising goals. Their deadline loomed sooner than most students understood. They needed assurances the total was within reach by mid-July to avoid losing deposits on their travel accommodations.
The Arizona school tax credit program allows residents to contribute up to $200 each — $400 for a couple — to a specific school program, such as a band, and then take the money as a credit against their state income taxes. The Shadow Mountain boosters put the word out right away that parents and friends could use the credit to help pay for the Pearl Harbor trip. “We tried to hit the tax credit right away,” said John Chichester, the cotreasurer of the Band Boosters. “We thought of it this way: If we could get just 375 people to give us the maximum of $400, then we’d be there.”
The boosters and the students brainstormed other ideas. A sponsor, Nationwide Insurance, pledged money for attendance at a year-end concert and wrote a check for $5,000. Band members played at restaurants and outside Chase Field before a Diamondbacks game. The boosters established a GoFundMe account for direct donations. By the end of May, the boosters were about one-third of the way toward their goal.
“We really want to represent our state,” said Darwin Mick, a junior who plays the tenor saxophone. “It’s cool that we could be going to Hawaii, but it would be great if we can get ourselves out there to do something amazing.”
The Shadow Mountain bands — a concert band, marching band, percussion ensemble and jazz band — have improved under Simon and scored “excellent” and “superior” ratings at competitions this year. Students say the high scores and the invitation to Pearl Harbor have motivated them to work harder. Even the departing seniors have pitched in to help raise money.
“It shows how far we have come as a band,” said Alyssa Lindsey, a senior who plays trombone and euphonium. “This trip will encourage our program to grow more.”
Connecting to history
Both Simon and Hattendorf want to give the students a meaningful experience and will mix in history as they prepare musical selections and rehearse performances. Many of the band members have completed U.S. history classes, but the band directors want the students to grasp the significance of one of the most pivotal moments in America’s past. “Our band tries to do stuff with purpose,” said Ryan Ardelt, a senior at Mountain Ridge and a member of the percussion section. “Doing this defines what the Mountain Ridge band stands for.”
To prepare for the 2011 trip to Pearl Harbor, Hattendorf brought in a history instructor to help the students understand what happened in December 1941 and why it changed the world.
Simon would like to introduce the band members to survivors from Pearl Harbor. One attended the Shadow Mountain year-end concert. Several Shadow Mountain band members also participate in the Veterans Heritage Project, collecting stories from military veterans for permanent preservation.
About the same time Simon was talking to organizers of the Pearl Harbor parade, the Paradise Valley Unified School District was considering a separate invitation for an all-district band to play at Pearl Harbor events. That trip would have eased the financial burden on Shadow Mountain but would have limited the number of band members who could go.
Simon took the two invitations to the band. The vote was unanimous. They would go as Shadow Mountain or not at all. “The Pearl Harbor parade felt a lot more personal,” said Justin Chichester, a junior who plays the alto saxophone. “Being able to represent the USS Arizona is a great honor for us.”