American Fork band raises funds, will go to Grand Nationals

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Band Dads waited until 8 p.m. Tuesday night to start loading the tympani, marimbas and other equipment onto the semitrailer adorned with the American Fork High School Marching Band's distinctive logo.

The truck will leave American Fork for Indianapolis on Wednesday — a day ahead of the 220 band members who will board commercial jets on Thursday headed for the same destination.

Loading the truck was held up until the Alpine Board of Education approved an extraordinary request in its Tuesday night meeting to allow the band to make an out-of-state trip to compete on the national stage with less than two days' notice.

Many were using the term "miracle" to describe the monumental effort that raised $280,000 in less than 48 hours and compressed a year of planning into days to send the band to compete at the Bands of America Grand Nationals this weekend.

"Typically, this would have come through a longer, more drawn-out process," said Sam Jarman, the Alpine School District administrator who presented the proposal to the board. "It usually takes a year or two just to earn the money."

The groundswell of activity that culminated Tuesday night started Saturday, after the band won first place at the Bands of America Western Regionals in St. George.

Competition judges, moved by the band's emotional field show that honors World War II veterans, told parents of band members that the show deserved a national audience.

The show took on added meaning for band members after the Oct. 10 death of Heather Christensen, an American Fork band instructor who was killed when a bus full of students overturned while returning from a competition in Pocatello.

"It's a unique situation for this year," Alpine Superintendent Vernon Henshaw said when he recommended the board approve the trip.

Band supporters went to work on Monday making the necessary travel and lodging arrangements, but few people thought the band could raise the $225,000 needed to fund the trip.

By Tuesday afternoon, the band had earned that much and then some, thanks to donations from band parents, students and the community.

"I told the students that they couldn't expect the community to send them on this trip," said band director John Miller, and in response the students and their parents raised 60 percent of the travel cost. The remainder came from the community.

"We had people from all over donating money," Miller said. "Everybody from band veterans who came by with $20 to one grandmother who came in and gave us $5,000."

The largest single donation of $25,000 came from the Ashton Foundation.

Alpine Board member Christine Hannemann praised the effort.

"When I first heard about it, I thought this is quite ambitious to raise this money," Hannemann said. "It's a tremendous effort for many people."

The American Fork band, one of 125 invited to the competition, will perform at 1 p.m. Friday. The top 35 will compete Saturday morning, and the final 12 bands will perform again Saturday night.

e-mail: mhaddock@desnews.com