BY THE NUMBERS
2: The number of additional performances the band will make before the Rose Parade. The band will also perform in the Dec. 29 Disneyland Parade and the Rose Parade's Band Fest on Dec. 30.
313: Number of members in the Marching Comets band and color guard. It is one of the largest marching bands in Southwest Ohio.
5.5 miles: The length of the Rose Parade route.
5.5 tons: The weight of musical instruments, equipment, uniforms and props shipped to to Pasadena, Calif.
HOW TO WATCH
The Rose Parade starts at 11 a.m. Jan. 1.
The Rose Parade is televised on ABC, NBC and the Hallmark Channel, but Mason officials recommend that if you’d like to see the parade without commercial breaks to tune into the broadcast on HGTV.
The Mason band is scheduled to appear toward the end of the two-hour parade.
Sleepy but excited Mason High School teens moved through pre-dawn darkness Sunday onto nine giant buses for the first leg of their 2,000-mile trip to the Rose Parade and international fame.
The 313 students of the Marching Comets are Pasadena, Calif.-bound and a small army of parents and supporters are joining them for their New Year’s Day performance before a global TV audience of 79 million.
The award-winning band, which is only the second in Southwest Ohio to earn a coveted invite to perform in the prestigious Rose Parade, has already seen 5.5 tons of musical instruments, props, uniforms, banners, tools and generators trucked out to Pasadena.
And now, after gathering at 3:30 a.m. Sunday at the Warren County high school, the waiting from the more than a year of anticipation for this historic trip is becoming reality.
“You have earned this trip,” Mason Band Director Bob Bass told the crowd of more than 500 band members, volunteers and parents crammed into a school cafeteria prior to boarding the buses. “You have worked hard and your parents have worked hard.”
The band flew later Sunday morning from the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport, departing in a chartered 747 aircraft.
“Everyone is very excited,” Bass told the Journal-News over the din of the crowd.
Mason High School junior and trombone player Josh Suguitan said the excitement is understandable.
“The trip is a celebration and an award for all the hard work we have put in and for all the people who have supported us financially. It means a lot to us and the community,” said the 16-year-old.
Earlier this fall the band finished fourth among 95 bands at the Bands of America Grand National Championship in Indianapolis. Mason’s top five performance at the same event in 2014 helped the band earn an invitation by Rose Parade officials.
Only 20 high schools nationwide are invited each year.
Lakota West High School in Butler County is the only other area school to have performed in the Rose Parade, an honor they have enjoyed twice since 2008.
Joining the 313 band and color guard members are 23 chaperones, four adults in charge of uniforms and 15 band pit crew members who move, assemble and maintain the band’s heavier musical instruments and props.
Also making the trip to California will be more than 200 family and friends of the band.
Among them is band parent Barbie Champ, who said “it’s pretty historic.”
“We have such a large band and it took a lot of planning,” Champ said of the trip.
Band officials estimate the average cost per band family is $2,450 covered largely by each individual family with the help of private donations from Mason school district residents and area corporations.
“This is a once in a lifetime thing for the Mason band,” said band parent Jeff Hathaway. “It’s a huge deal.”
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