Almost one in four students are in the marching band at Pine Grove Area High School up I-81 in Schuylkill County including football players, cheerleaders, Junior ROTC cadets and even the homecoming queen.
Not bad for a high school with only 500 students.Under the direction of Ken Gibson for the past 27 years, he thinks the high interest in band comes down to a couple of simple reasons. Early student involvement, students involved in the planning process, community involvement and most importantly, it’s fun.“We try very hard in our elementary program, in 4th grade, to get kids involved,” Gibson said recently.
This year’s theme was “The Epic Movie Spectacular,” with students suggesting the music from “Star Wars” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Everyone was pushing the movies. Gibson also sponsors something Gibson calls “Past, Present and Future,” where he invites middle school kids and their parents to join a current family band member at the Homecoming game’s halftime show. “That gets our middle school kids involved and keeps their parents involved too,” Gibson added.
On top of kids in the band, there are 20-30 students in the chorus and 20-30 in the concert band. “There are close to 200 kids being active in music at the school,” he added, “That’s why I‘m here, that’s what it’s about here,” Gibson said.“One of the reasons we don’t compete is when you have 25 percent of school in the band, it’s hard to find a Saturday to compete,” Gibson said. “When we have six girls on the soccer team we don’t want them forced to decide where to play, band or soccer.
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