Band Stories - Spring-Ford Alumnus Brad Mea

hasn't just created opportunities for current students, but even for alumni who want to give back to the school that helped them succeed in the first place.

One evening a little over three years ago, 2007 Spring-Ford alumnus Brad Mea (pronounced MAY) received a phone call from George Growcott of the Spring-Ford Golden Ram Marching Band.

"Hey Brad," he said. "What are you doing this season?"

Somehow, Brad already knew the answer to that fateful question.

"Teaching at Spring-Ford?" he replied.

Mea played trumpet while in high school and has continued to do so through his music education career at West Chester University. He is currently a senior and has been helping with the Spring-Ford marching band for the past three years.

"It was an experience," Mea said. "I didn’t really know what I was getting into. I didn’t have a lot of experience under my belt. It was really strange seeing the exact same process from the other side, because I was there. I was on that field. Now I was the one helping to work the rehearsal."

Being so fresh out of high school, Mea felt he was able to relate to the current students.

"It was odd, but it has also been a good learning experience," he continued. "As a teacher, you have to stay connected with the students and understand how they’re feeling and having been in those exact same shoes is a good experience in that regard."

As for the future, Mea is hoping to teach music at some level. While he at first wanted to do high school, he said he is now leaning toward elementary school. Either way, he wants to be involved with a high school marching band on the side.

However, Mea moves forward because of the constant support he received from his parents in the past.

“My parents have just been incredibly supportive," he said. "Even now that I’m not marching Spring-Ford anymore. I’m still there and back. Even though my dad is a doctor, which you might think he’d not be musical at all, he has been very supportive of me going into music. I don’t think there’s anything I did band-related that he missed when I was in high school, ever, for anything. I think it was the same when my brother was in school as well. So, working concessions, working as a chaperone. He and my mom were always there."

Overall, if Mea stays within the district or not, he hopes to see it continue on supporting the arts.

"The Spring-Ford community – I didn’t see it when I was in high school but I see it now – is very supportive of the arts," Mea concluded. "There’s art in the buildings, music in the building and those things are great. It’s not everywhere, so I’d hope that Spring-Ford will always be supportive, because there is something special going on there. The people there maybe don’t know that. They just need to keep it going."