The Okawville Junior High and High school band once again marched in the Okawville Wheat Fest parade. The parade had numerous floats and it was a great turn out. There were many children and a lot of candy. The whole street was filled with people enjoying the Wheat Festival. 

The Okawville Jr./Sr. High school band has 73 kids all together. This year they decided to wear the old band uniforms but unfortunately, couldn’t wear the coats due to the weather.  Instead, they decided to wear orange shirts and on the back it said “If I pass out march around me” and also wore cowboy hats. The weather was nice in the beginning, but towards the end it began to pour.  But overall the weather was nice and sunny, and it was a beautiful day.

I interviewed Lillian Helbig, an 8th grader, and asked her a few questions about the band’s performance in the parade and what she thought the band improved on.  She responded with, “The band sounded great overall.  One thing we improved on was memorizing the music because this was the first time the 7th and 8th graders marched and had to memorize music.”

I also asked the band director, Mr. Recker, what he thought the band could improve on for the future.  He replied, “Overall, the band sounded very well, but we always want to continue to improve and sound even better for our next performance.  I felt very pleased with our accomplishment though.  With music being the number 1 priority due to the fact that we are in a music class I tend to put more focus on that over marching. The students and myself all recognize that we have some improvements that can be made with our marching uniformity, and we will be addressing those in preparation for the Mardi Gras Parade on October 30th in Pinckneyville.”

Both High School and Junior High bands are still continuing to work on their marching songs, “Patriotic Parade Sequence and Feel It Still.”. They are now preparing for the Mardi Gras Parade in Pinckneyville on October 30.  Good luck to the High School and Junior High band!