FAIRMONT – The way Matt Morgan tells it, he didn’t exactly feel like the Big Kahuna as the North Marion High School marching band he directs readied for its trip to Hawaii last month.
In fact, he gave a rueful chuckle as he recounted it all.
“We were probably fundraising right up to the minute we got on the bus for the airport,” he told Marion County Board of Education members during their meeting Monday. “It was like, ‘Hey, does anybody have any extra money?’”
He was talking about an across-the-Pacific jaunt for the marching band from the school just outside Mannington in northern Marion County.
The band known for its black and silver colors was invited to Blue Hawaii for the island nation’s annual Dec. 7 marking of Pearl Harbor, honoring America’s service and sacrifice in World War II.
North Marion was one of three musical assemblages from West Virginia making the trip. The marching bands of Greenbrier East High and Hannah Middle-Senior High also boarded their own planes to get there.
Besides marching in the parade on Dec. 7, one highlight that was particularly moving, Morgan said, was a performance with the three bands from the Mountain State combined with the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial gleaming off in the distance.
He appreciated the poise and prowess of North Marion’s band, he said, given the heady nature of the trip.
Many band members, he said, were marking their first plane rides – and their first excursions out of West Virginia – at the same time.
“We were honored to be there,” he said. “I’m proud of our kids. They did well.”
In other matters, Superintendent Donna Heston told the BOE that the cleanup at East Fairmont High School from last June’s Father’s Day flood was finally nearing completion.
Heston reported the district paid an invoice in the amount of $25,171.75 to Crossroads Property Rescue to remove mold while doing other cleaning in a locker room area next to the weight room.
The school on Airport Road sustained water damage at the height of the storm due to a leaking roof.
