Somerset Berkley band will represent MA at Pearl Harbor ceremony
SOMERSET — Band students at Somerset Berkley Regional High School are getting a special opportunity: an invitation to travel to Hawaii and represent Massachusetts in a parade marking the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attacks.
“It’s very, very exciting. It’s quite an honor to be able to go,” said Christina Rausch, the school’s band director. “The students have been working really hard.”
Forty students from the school’s concert and marching bands are flying to Hawaii for the 81st Pearl Harbor Memorial Parade held on Dec. 7, the anniversary of the attack that killed more than 2,000 people, mostly U.S. service members, and prompted the country’s entry into World War II.
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One school band is selected to represent each state. Rausch said Somerset Berkley has made a name for itself as having a competitive band program, but the invitation letter still came as a surprise.
Students will get a serious history lesson, as they will have a chance to visit sites like the USS Arizona Memorial Museum and the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, along with performing on the deck of the USS Missouri, the historic battleship that was the site of Japan’s official surrender at the end of World War II.
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Local businesses and groups like the Somerset Friends of Music and BayCoast Bank are helping to cover the cost of flying dozens of students and chaperones, along with their instruments, to Hawaii. Band parents have also launched an online fundraiser to help offset some of the costs. “I’m just overwhelmed by how supportive everyone has been,” said Rausch.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Somerset Berkley band students to perform at Pearl Harbor ceremony
