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Poland marching band alumni reunite for Friday night performance
Poland marching band alumni reunite
POLAND
A decades-long friendship.
A tradition passed down from parents to children.
A cross-country trip to reunite with old friends, and meet new ones.
All were spurred by the Poland Seminary High School Marching Band.
For the first time in decades – no one is quite sure how long – band alumni from different eras got together to perform at Friday night’s home football game. The event, which drew nearly 60 participants, was the first in what organizers hope will become an annual tradition.
For information about participating next year, send an email to pshsalumniband@gmail.com.
“Band was a huge part of my high-school experience, and now that I’m here teaching at a high school again, I see how things have changed,” said Julie Walsh, a band alumna who organized the event with her sister, Jennifer Downie. Walsh was in the PSHS band from 1992-95, and now is a teacher at the high school.
“I want this to continue to be a part of who we are and where we’re going. And it’s always nice to show our kids what this means,” she said.
What band meant to many who participated in the show was remarkably similar: camaraderie. A sense of belonging. An opportunity to learn essential life lessons.
For Pam Burns, of Poland, and Gail
Blevins, of Austintown, band is what brought them together. The two met during band in middle school. Burns graduated in 1973, and Blevins graduated in 1974. They’ve remained lifelong best friends.
“We’ve gone through life and death together!” Burns exclaimed.
The two were ecstatic at the chance to attend the alumni performance, and both extolled their band experiences.
“I was one of the kids that, believe it or not, got bullied in high school a lot because of where I lived in Poland,” Burns said. “Being in the band, I just felt like I belonged.”
Dani Deem, of Boardman, also shared fond memories of her band days from 1991-95.
“I was a terrible clarinet player, but the experience was amazing,” she said. “The fun, the camaraderie, just the experience in itself – no sports team ever came close to giving me the feeling I had while I was in band.”
Deem said she plans to make her own kids give marching band a try when they start high school.
Downie, who was in marching band from 1985-89, also passed down the tradition to her daughter, Jordan, a senior who plays bass drum.
Geoff Howard, a 1967 PSHS graduate, was not the oldest to take part in the reunion, but he was hoping to take the cake for farthest journey to get there. Howard traveled from his Idaho home to take part in the performance.
He eagerly pointed to the positive attributes he believes high-school band can instill in young people.
“It changed my life. That sounds like overstatement, but it’s not. We had a director in that era who was both musician, and parent,” he said of former band director James Fagnano.
“He made us all better people, and I think we accomplished more in life because we knew him. He expected accomplishments, and we delivered,” Howard said.
PSHS’s band director the past 16 years, Nicholas Olesko, is the one who got the ball rolling on the alumni reunion.
“It’s great to see. We have a lot of kids who just graduated in the last 10 years, so it’s great to see where they’re at in their lives and to see how music made an impact on their lives,” he said.