On Sunday March 16, Northtown’s band students took a 5-day trip to the state of Hawaii to perform at the Pearl Harbor Memorial.

For each individual band student, the trip cost approximately around $2000, give or take. Most of the students going paid out of their own pocket but, there were many ways as to which band students chose to rally up some cash. For example, some participated in the Renaissance Fair and sold trash bags to help contribute to the expenses that would accompany them throughout their trip.

There were around 65 students in total who went on this trip, along with Northtown’s band teacher Carrie Epperson and a few other supervisors arriving at a sum of about 120 people.

Northtown’s Band didn’t just decide to make a trip to Hawaii as a random choice. Back in the year of 1941, 21 band members of the U.S. Navy Band Unit (NBU) perished before they could ever play; including a 1937 Northtown graduate Curtis Haas. The band was competing in the finals of the “Battle of Music” which was a competition between military bands based at Pearl Harbor.

When Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7^th, most of the NBU band members were up on deck preparing to play music for the daily flag raising ceremony. The musicians ran down below to their battle stations in the ships’ ammunition holds. Just as they reached their stations, the USS Arizona was hit four times by Japanese bombers and eventually sank. At no other time in our great American history has an entire military band died in action.

In honor of the events that surrounded Pearl Harbor and the soldiers in the U.S. Navy Band Unit, Northtown’s band played at Pearl Harbor Memorial. They performed the songs At Dawn they Slept, The Clouds that Sail in Heaven, and The Sun Just Touched the Morning.

“I think the band performed very well for only having five practices as a group,” stated senior Rebeckah Kitchen. “The performance was very difficult due to the wind being strong and the sun shining in our faces and not being able to see Epperson all that well when she was conducting.”

Though the main reason for the band students traveling to Hawaii was to honor those musicians who died during the attack on Pearl Harbor, they also were there to view the various sites that surrounded them. Amongst those sites that the band traveled to included Diamond Head Peak, a volcanic tuff cone. They also went to a luau, the beach, and went on a city tour.

Kitchen said, “We went to a show too. They impersonated Brittany Spears, Michael Jackson and other celebrities. We also had a nice Lei ceremony with the seniors. Mrs. Epperson cried which made me cry.”

Northtown’s band visiting Hawaii had more meaning behind it than just going to enjoy the sun though that was a strong selling point. Enjoying the sandy beaches and warm weather is enough reason to go to Hawaii but honoring the lives lost at Pearl Harbor makes the trip more memorable for the everyone who went.