By Alana Soukkhasem
On Monday November 29th, Redwood High School and Green Acres Middle school will be combining to perform in the Candy Cane Lane Parade. This is the first time where both groups will perform together.
Senior Redwood band member Evan Judson ‘22, says he feels the ability to mentor and teach middle school students has been pretty cool.”
Judson expresses that he’s glad to be able to involve them in what it’s like to be in a Marching Band. He says, “We were even able to practice marching and playing the music on the turf field to get a good run in. I hope the kids from green acres take away a piece of how fun the band is.”
On Tuesday November 16th, Green Acres and Redwood practiced to Judson says, “I think the practice went very well, we went over the music and sounded amazing and taught the middle schoolers the very basics of marching.”
The middle school students have also never marched before and Judson wishes that the students learned willingly from this. He says, “I hope that it will inspire them to better themselves both in music and marching.”
Drum Major Reghan Cutler ´22 had previously been the Drum Major at Green Acres before Redwood. Cutler feels very excited to perform back with Green Acres. Cutler says, “It feels amazing! It’s kinda cool to have been the drum major for two years with some of the juniors and seniors in the band. I’m so glad to have been able to take this position because it’s been super fun and extremely rewarding.”
She adds, “It’s been very crazy with the pandemic, but I’m really happy to be able to march in this parade one last time before I graduate.”
This opportunity for Cutler brings her so much recognition, she says, “Being able to talk with the teacher, and work with the person that inspired my passion for band is really fun and memorable. It brings me back to why I loved the band, and why I’ve stuck with it for all these years.”
Tags: candy cane lane parade, greenacres, marching band, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood journalism, visalia ca