Band Heading to 'Happiest Place on Earth:' Disney World

The Stow-Munroe Falls High School band was selected to perform for a crowd at the "Happiest Place on Earth," Walt Disney World Resort in March. 

To get to Florida, the band members are honing their sales skills to raise $700 each for one of the best school trips ever.

The 234 participating musicians will get to perform in a Disney parade in the Magic Kingdom, attend a Disney Performing Arts Workshop and have a few days worth of fun in the Orlando theme parks.

For Brian Monroe, 22-year band director, the March 15-20 journey will be his fifth Disney trip with the musical students — and he still thinks it’s an exciting adventure.

“The performing experience that the kids have playing in front of that many people is really amazing. The venue is amazing,” Monroe said. “The workshop, to me, is what makes it all really worthwhile. It’s a really neat experience.”

He said band students in the district are able to start saving money for their future Disney trip while still in seventh grade. That’s when the Stow-Munroe Falls Band Booster Association creates an account in each of their names.

The trip occurs every four years, giving each band member a chance to go once while in high school. Parents can make deposits in their child’s account or leave it up to the child to earn their way through a variety of band fundraisers. No district funds are used for the band’s Disney trip.

The band boosters sponsor fundraisers specifically designed for students to earn Disney trip money.

For example, band members are currently selling magazines and cookie dough (ends Thursday) and Entertainment 2012 books (ends Sept. 29). Next up, just in time for holiday deliveries, will be sales of citrus fruit and cheesecakes (Oct. 14 through Nov. 15).

“We try to give the students as many fundraising opportunities as possible. We have some kids who manage to raise their entire (Disney trip) amount through these fundraisers,” Monroe said.

Each student’s $700 trip fee covers tour-bus transportation both ways, an ocean-side dinner cookout in Cocoa Beach, three nights at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, admission to the Disney parks and the cost of the “You’re Instrumental!” workshop.

Monroe said the band needs five tour buses to accommodate the 234 of its 242 members going on the trip. Accompanying the students will be 10 parent chaperones, as well as Monroe and his two assistant band directors, Greg Newman and Sandra Sandman.

The trip is already well-planned, but there’s still one detail Monroe is anxious to hear about: which March 17 parade the band will get to participate in.

“We know we’re scheduled for Saturday in the Magic Kingdom, but there are three parades that day,” Monroe said. “We’re hoping we’ll be in the Spectromagic parade because it’s the biggest parade, it’s the one at night, it has the most number of people that come out for it and it’s right before the fireworks.”