From the Pasadena Star-News:PASADENA, Calif. - Their journey to the 121st Rose Parade is a marvel even to the Ohio State School for the Blind's marching band (pictured) leader Dan Kelly.
"It's very exciting," said Kelly, who also teaches technology at the school. "It started small, but it's grown and snowballed - and here we are."
Back in 1998, the Ohio State School for the Blind's music program involved only vocal music. Now, just over a decade later, the school's marching band will perform in one of the world's top showcases for marching bands - the first blind band ever to march in the Rose Parade.
The band was one of 19 that performed at the two-day Bandfest, which ended Wednesday at Pasadena City College's football field. It featured all of the marching bands that will appear in the Rose Parade.
But the event also gives the bands a chance to showcase their performance abilities in a larger arena, performing formations they will not be able to do at the parade.
On Dec. 30, the Ohio State School for the Blind marching band practiced a formation in the shape of the four letters of their home state. The 32 band members, who range from age 13 to 24, are assisted by 36 seeing assistants who help them stay in formation.
The school serves students from all over Ohio, but some of the older members are alumni who came back to play in the parade, said Kelley.
The marching band program at the school is only a few years old; it started in 2005. But its roots go back to 1998, when music director Carol Agler discovered that the school owned various musical instruments that had never been used before.
"They were just sitting around in a closet," said Agler. "And suddenly we had a band program."
In 2005, the school was invited as the marching band for a football team for a state school for the deaf located next door. The football team had just been formed and wanted a band to support it.
Agler and Kelley then worked to develop the school's marching band program, receiving assistance from the Ohio State University band.
That makes the school's visit to Pasadena even more special - Ohio State, along with its band, will be playing in the Rose Bowl game against the University of Oregon.
The school for the blind's marching band members will attend the game to cheer the Buckeyes on, sitting behind the university's band.But first they have to make it through the parade. The band hasn't yet walked a full 5.5 miles, the length of the Rose Parade route down Colorado Boulevard.
Making it through the entire march without injury and heat exhaustion is frequently a challenge for high school marching bands.
Kelley said the group has done 4-mile marches before, and that should be enough practice to make it through the Rose Parade.
"If you can do four, you can do five and a half," said Kelley.
No matter what happens, for the students of the Ohio State School for the Blind, the benefits of being in its marching band go beyond just getting to perform.
"It's cool to get to travel with the band," said Bria Goshay, a 16-year-old who plays the snare drum. "You get to do a lot of things you usually wouldn't get a chance to do."