Ohio State School for the Blind marching band headed to Boston for international parade

Cole Behrens, The Columbus Dispatch
Updated ·2 min read
The Ohio State School for the Blind marching band, seen here marching down Colorado Boulevard on Jan. 1, 2009 during the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, will perform Saturday at the Lions Club International Parade of Nations on Saturday in Boston.
The Ohio State School for the Blind marching band, seen here marching down Colorado Boulevard on Jan. 1, 2009 during the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, will perform Saturday at the Lions Club International Parade of Nations on Saturday in Boston.

A local marching band is in Boston to show off their musical skills in a parade — and serve as a model for visually impaired musicians.

The Ohio State School for the Blind’s marching band headed for Boston on Thursday to participate in the Lions Club International Parade of Nations on Saturday as a part of the Lions Club International Convention.

The "Marching Panthers" will join Lions Clubs from around the world in the parade and will perform songs like "Beautiful Ohio," "Land of 1,000 Dances" and "Sweet Caroline." The band has 22 members and 17 marching assistants traveling to Boston, along with parent chaperones. The band participants will leave Thursday and return Monday.

Ohio State School for the Blind (OSSB), located in the Clintonville neighborhood, is run by the Ohio Department of Education to serve blind and visually impaired students across Ohio. Established in 1837, it was the nation's first public school for the visually impaired.

The mission of the OSSB marching band, founded in 2005, is to demonstrate the abilities of people with disabilities and serve as "a model for visually impaired musicians to participate fully, and as an example to raise the expectations of and for those with disabilities," according to a website.

The band meets five times a week, plus a marching practice once a week during football season, according to the ODE website. Participants must also attend a week-long band camp during the summer, and they perform at area football games and performs as a pep band at the Ohio School for the Deaf basketball games.

Until 2022, the OSSB marching band was the sole blind marching band known to exist in the world until the Alabama School for the Blind launched their own marching band last year.

The band previously marched in the Lions Club International Parade in 2011 and 2017.  The International Association of Lions Clubs, more commonly known as Lions Clubs International, is a worldwide service organization established in 1917.

In addition, the OSSB band has previously performed at the 2010 Rose Bowl Parade, the National Memorial Day Parade in 2015 and the 2020 Outback Bowl Parade.

@Colebehr_report

Cbehrens@dispatch.com

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Marching band of blind Ohio students headed to Boston for parade