Band says thanks for all the help

Dear editor:

With the Mountain Home High School Marching Band's season ending this week, words cannot begin to convey the enormous contributions band students and their parents invested to make this season the best seen in many years.

Simply put, our marching band season would not be as successful without all this help. In fact, the fall season isn't the only time they help. During the year, they are busy putting together decorations for the holiday concert, helping as chaperons to competitions, running our fund raisers, taking care of uniform cleaning expenses and putting together gifts to help honor our seniors. And this is just the beginning.

I'd like to take a moment to recognize some of the stars that really helped the band shine this year. Band parents like Michelle Smith and her mother spent days meticulously fixing sequins on the marching band uniform. Tom Lindsay dealt with all the hard work of supervising and cooking our Dutch oven meals at homecoming as well as fixing all the desserts for each game.

Meanwhile, Robert and Chris Bonorato invested many hours working on the overall details on efforts like our fund raisers, student accounts, student eligibility and medical forms and much. Shawn and Darci Heckathorne ensured all the props and equipment made it to and from each competition and game as well as getting food for the band students at games and at the District III competition. Then there are others like Cassandra Walker who provided food at our band camp as well as goodies for the band.

Other band parents that have helped in many other ways are Walt and Susan Rueger, Eric and Tina Webb and Chancy and Natasha Tienhaara. Unfortunately, there's just not enough space to properly credit the many others out there that worked behind the scenes to help our students achieve new levels of greatness. However, I do need to mention art student Darien Scarlott, who painted all the backdrops for our performances. He did a great job.

Again, all my sincerest thanks and gratitude for helping the Mountain Home High School Marching Band become such an award-winning team.

Jerry Tippets, band director