Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/2864
Photos by David Okada cal groups, but not Saratoga’s Redwood Mid- dle Sc h o o l Marching Band, the only middle school band and the only band from California to play on the history-making day. “The march- California teachers and students attend inauguration T he cold temperatures of Barack Obama’s Inaugura- tion Day felled other musi- “The marching was historic. … It was just a wonderful adventure.” ing was historic — but stressful, and grueling,” says band direc- tor Vicki Wyant, a member of the Saratoga Teachers Association, who wait- ed with her band for four hours in temperatures in the teens for the privilege of marching in the Vicki Wyant, Saratoga Teachers Association Inaugural Parade. In spite of the stinging cold, Wyant says, the band’s plucky performance of “Torch of Liberty,” “God Bless America” and “America the Beautiful” went off beautifully and was duly noted by Presi- dent Barack Obama, who watched and waved as they passed. Wyant sent in an applica- tion along with a DVD at the urging of her school principal, who had played in the first inauguration of Bill Clinton. She was sur- prised as anyone to have been chosen — even though her band had the chops to win a spot on the lineup. Wyant observes that because the school is in a wealthy community, the school’s music department is well sup- ported by families in the way that music programs used to be supported. Redwood Middle School not only has a marching band, but a jazz band, an or- chestra, a choir and a percus- sion ensemble. Although her students were prepared for the performance with hand warmers, foot warm- ers, thermal underwear, and ear warmers, the band suffered from the excessive tempera- tures, and several of the instru- ment valves froze. Still, the band members proved to be troupers, and carried on even as more ex- perienced groups dropped out. “We made it through. I was very proud of them,” Wyant says. “It was just a wonderful adventure.” While Wyant’s group may have been the only California band to play at the inaugura- tion, it was not the only group of California students to attend. Menifee Teachers Associa- tion member Heather Tortoreti took her Bell Mountain Middle School eighth-graders to expe- rience the inauguration — as she had once experienced the second inauguration of Ronald Reagan. Unfortunately, the group wasn’t able to obtain tick- ets and watched the swearing in from outside the Natural His- tory Museum. Despite her letters to parents and warnings about the temper- atures, Tortoreti found that many of her Southern Califor- nia students were not prepared for the cold. “One kid just had a sweat- shirt, so our visit included a trip to Kmart. I made them spend their souvenir money on ther- mal underwear,” Tortoreti says. The experience of being in a pressing crowd of nearly 2 mil- lion people also proved to be scary for Tortoreti, who was as- sisted by another teacher and her mother. “Trying to keep 30 middle school kids together in that crowd! We just locked arms and tried to get through,” says Tor- toreti. “We were very protective of our kids.” Still, she thinks the trip was Redwood Middle School Marching Band and Auxiliary Units marching proudly down Pennsylvania Avenue on Inauguration Day in the frigid cold. the experience of a lifetime. “They were stunned. There were a lot of tears and such a sense of camaraderie among everyone who was there. It was just very emotional.” Dina Martin february 2009 | www.cta.org 27