NEW ORLEANS — For the first time, the St. Augustine Marching 100 band is preparing to play to an international audience.
The high school students have been asked to perform at the site of one of the great turning points of twentieth-century history.
We went to the school and inside the intense preparations.
In the heat of the day, for hour upon hour, the young men of the St. Aug marching 100 are getting ready for the world stage.
Monday before sunrise, the Purple Knights will fly to Europe.
“Our programs have always supported our veterans, but it's quite an honor to go over there to France, to be able to celebrate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, and the reason that we're going is because we want the world to know that we support this,” said Ray Johnson, Sr. the St. Augustine High School Marching Band Director.
Before they go to perform four times in Normandy and Paris, they are learning a new repertoire of patriotic music.
They spent a day at the National WWII Museum learning what happened on those beaches on June 6, 1944, and how more than 4,400 young men around their ages died so that freedom wouldn't.
“It's really amazing that like people, even at 16-years-old, and older, were fighting, so like we have to be grateful for everybody that's out that basically survived, and the people that also sacrifice themselves, because without them being out there sacrificing, we wouldn't be here right now, said new graduate and drum major Kameron Brown, who is headed to Southeastern Louisiana University in the fall to study business administration.
“It means a lot you know. It really puts a perspective on things, and it makes us become like more understanding of people's situations,” said Leland Thomas, 18, a recent graduate, who is headed to Jackson State. He is a drum major and plays the tenor drum.
“I could tell that parents really felt bad, and family members felt bad for their children, or their cousin, or somebody that died in World War II. Imagine that could be me and my mother like that,” said Charles Harper III, a rising 9th grader who carries the color guard and wants to play the symbols one day.
“I think the young men really saw it come real for them. You can not walk into the WWII Museum and not feel something. It is a very, very moving place,” said Aulston Taylor, President and CEO of St. Augustine.
The concept of a marching band in Europe is, well, foreign. The road to Normandy started a year, and a half ago. Only band members who earned good grades are going. In 10 months, the school raised $702,000 to pay for the trip.
Most came from the Floyd family, major supporters of the WWII Museum. The rest was a community effort from alumni, community friends, and foundations. These students say St. Aug builds life-long character.
“Discipline, respect, and brotherhood, that's the main three things,” Harper says he has learned from being a band member.
Some say it's kept them from the street life. Now, they are just as proud to show the world how one small school in the 7th Ward is developing successful, productive, patriotic American young men.
The students and their chaperones will be in France for eight days.
They will visit historic sites like the cemetery and beaches in Normandy, as well as tour places that France is famous for, like the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral.
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