SailorMoon190

After hearing what happened in Newtown today, I have a new look on things and how things can change in an instant. I feel horrible after hearing what happened. My prayers go out to the students, faculty and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School who witnessed this horrible thing, and my prayers go out to those who died. This is truly a sad thing to happen, even before Christmas. I think I'm literally about to cry! Those kids did NOT deserve to leave this world like this. NOT AT ALL. ♥

The Verona Concert Band has been selected to perform at the iconic Carnegie Hall on March 15th, 2013! Mr. Lynch the Verona High School Band Director/Maestro had applied for a grant from the VFEE to help fund the VHS Concert Band's Carnegie Hall Performance, but the grant was denied. The VHS Concert Band is raising money to get enough money to perform at this iconic theatre. they need all the help they can get. Please help the Verona Concert Band to perform at Carnegie Hall! It's literally a "once in a life time" oppertunity!

You can donate here at the Verona Music website:

veronamusic.org/

Thank You So Much!!!!!

WOW! That went by so fast!!!!!!! It still hasn't hit me that Marching Band is over! I'm going to go through SUCH a big withdrawal! This has seriously been an AMAZING Band Season!

Story time! Last year was my freshman year in marching band. I was the definition for "newbie" and "THAT Freshman". I was not good at color guard AT ALL! I was so bad that by the time Band Camp came I cried... Alot. I HATED band! I was seriously so close to quiting, but my guard instructor convinced me to stay and to only be in 1 part of the show which was a 21 count swing flag part aka the ballad. So I agreed to stay. That day, my band director found out about my little panic attack/cry-fest and after practice that day, when I was getting the yard markers (Freshman job) he said "Don't worry Miss. Karpinski! You'll get it, you'll get it!" With a smile on his face. After he said that to me, I cried again because that literally meant the world to me that he said that. Nationals at J. Birney Crum came and it was about 2 weeks after the Color Guard had an intervention and we all became closer as a family. That night when we got 2nd Place and coveted The Cadets Award of Excellence for the 2nd time I cried (I'm a big cry baby! LoL!) and realized that I should have practiced more in color guard and I really didn't deserve anything that year because I gave up to quickly.

So Christmas came and my dad got me a 5'5ft Color Guard Flag and.... You can guess what I did. And after that day, through out winter, I practiced like a crazy person even though I had no routine to learn yet. I practiced tosses, made up my own routine, Memorial Day Parade routine, basics, across the floors, etc. Name it, I did it. I was going to be in the whole show no matter what.

Practices for the 2012 show finally came and I worked my butt off. I learned the routines, practiced the routines, dreamt about the routines until it was permanently nailed into my head. Then Band Camp came and I got my drill and my dot number. I was G2. I looked though the drill and saw that my band director wrote me into the entire show! I was so happy! Band Camp was actually fun this year and I finally completed a goal.

My guard instructors, drill writer, asst. band director, band director, and the entire guard was so impressed how far I came. From 1 year ago being in only one 21 count part of the show to this year being in the entire show! This is my marching band story. This is why I love my band and I love what I do.

"No score can ever tell us how to feel. No score can ever match the feeling of family in our singular program. No score can ever validate the demand and artistic integrity that is inherently woven into our show."

I was meaning to post sooner but the Hurricane blew out my power for a while. Sorry folks

Anyway at our last competition at Ridge we did EXTREAMLY well! I'm so happy with how it turned out! We won Best Music, Best Percussion, Best Overall Effect, Best Visual Performance, and Best Guard! We also had the second highest score in the entire competition and had the highest overall scores for Overall Effect and Color Guard! Sadly because of Hurricane Sandy, our All-State Championship has been canceled and has been postponed to next Sunday. It's good because the Marching Bands from the shore like Pt. Pleasant have been affected horribly because of this storm. My heart goes out to them. This is a really sad thing and I think that it is best to have the competition next week for the bands that were affected badly to practice, get prepared, and to get situated after all of this drama is done and over with.

I have to say, I thought last year's snow storm was worse. I'm surprised that the power is taking much longer to come back. Last year we had the worst damage and our power was out for only 3-4 days. This year the damage is not as bad, but it's taking an entire week for the power to come back (I understand that own the shore there is floods and 10x more damage then Verona, but Verona is in north Jersey and is like dead center of the state. We should have our power back by now.)

Anyway, My prayers go out to those who were suffered horribly by this storm and Be safe and be well

~Beckzzz

P.S. I just became an admin for my High School Music Program's facebook page....
If you like what I post on this page about the Verona High School Marching Band and want to see what happens later after Marching Band ends and Concert Band starts, you should go like the page! It is "Verona Music Students" on facebook!

www.facebook.com/pages/Verona-…

Ok. Since the Yamaha Cup, Verona High School went up by 9 POINTS (thats a lot), received the award for Best Music and Best Color Guard at the Montville competition! So happy! At the Yamaha Cup, Verona received 6th place out of 8...... That was a rough competition. But we were able to accomplished A LOT last week!