AP PhotoSome of the members of the Ohio State School for the Blind marching band react to the announcement that their band has been accepted to march in the 2010 Tournament of Roses Parade on Monday. The entire blind school’s student body was in the gym when the surprise announcement was made.Parade history will be made when a band from the Ohio State School for the Blind marches among the flower-covered floats in Pasadena, Calif., said Carol Agler, music director at the school.
“We’re the only blind marching band in the nation,” Agler said Tuesday. She knew of no other blind band to have marched in the parade.
Stacy Houser, the parade’s music committee chairwoman, said Monday she hopes the selection will be an inspiration throughout the country.
No one answered at the parade’s offices Tuesday.
The band got the news, as did the rest of the student body, during an assembly Monday at the school, whose students range from kindergartners up to high schoolers.
Agler held her cell phone up to a microphone for the announcement from Gary DiSano, president of the 2010 parade. Students screamed in delight.
Macy McClain, the band’s flute and piccolo player, compared the honor to being picked for “American Idol.” ”Except you don’t have to stand in line,” she said.
The band was formed in 2005 when the football team from the neighboring Ohio School for the Deaf was looking for a band to play at its games. Band members have played in parades before, though never in anything as long as the nearly 6-mile Rose Parade, so they’ll be practicing on treadmills, Agler said.
“We’ve thought about having a walk-a-thon or a march-a-thon, where the kids have to log hours on the treadmill or around a track and get sponsors,” she said, noting that the school will need to raise an estimated $1,500 in travel costs for each person making the trip, including the 17 band members and a number of alumni to beef up their ranks.
