Citizens For A Better Norwood

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

NHS Marching Band car wash this Saturday

Guest blog by Laura Hobbs

The Norwood High School Marching Band will host a car wash July 25 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at CVS Pharmacy at 5229 Montgomery Road. Donations accepted.

The band's first event of the season is the Norwood Day Parade this Tuesday evening. You might notice the band will be marching to a new drum cadence. The band is a little smaller this year than last year and will be competing in Class A again (we bumped up to Class AA last year).

Many people don't realize how many hours these students put in -- they have been practicing three hours every Tuesday and Thursday evening since July 7 and will have pre-camp at school all day the week of July 27. The following week, they go away for band camp where they work intensive hours learning and perfecting their half-time show. When they come back, they return to the Tuesday-Thursday evening schedule. Once school starts, they have their band class session every day and move the twice-weekly long rehearsals to Tuesday and Thursday afternoons for the rest of the marching season, which ends Nov. 7 with the MidStates Band Association finals competition. Patrick Bauer is director, Joe Waked is assistant director and Tiffany Rexhausen directs the color guard. Assistants are Phil Cecil, percussion; Kara Forcellini, woodwinds; and Brian Parido, trumpets/brass.

Norwood is hosting the MSBA finals this year for Class A at Shea Stadium. The Band Boosters will staff this event, along with the boosters from McNicholas High School -- the same group we worked with last September to host the River City Band Classic. We won't be doing RCBC this year, since we all feel one competition is enough! The Norwood Band Boosters are planning to do additional fund-raising by working concessions at Bengals home games. Our officers this year are Lisa Bauer, president; Anna Smith, secretary; and Sherri Walker, treasurer. We generally meet the first Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. in the band room, but watch our Web site for exceptions. Our August meeting will be Aug. 13 (postponed one week because of band camp.)

CBN blog readers can keep up to date on band events through the Band Booster Web site at http://www.norwoodbands.org.

Laura Hobbs
Norwood Band Boosters