Local students among European travelers
The Swiss Alps provided a breathtaking backdrop for this year’s crop of the Voyageurs International Ambassador Band Program earlier this summer. The group included five students from Wills Point, and three from Canton.
A handful of Van Zandt County band students got to enjoy the trip of a lifetime earlier this summer, taking part in a whirlwind European trip that included stops in England, France, Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Lichtenstein among others.
Canton’s Hannah Boswell, Ian Keel and Anna Thrasher, as well as Wills Point's Shelby Robinson, Casey Lawson, Dakotah Jackson, Anna Paredes and Andrea Paredes were among the local band students to make the trip through Voyageurs International’s Ambassador Band Program.
In a post on the company's website, Voyageurs International notes, “[We are] a Colorado-based company organized in 1970 to take American students and their music to audiences abroad. In over 40 years of international travel, VIL has served over 160,000 participants...the company operates in approximately 32 states and is a member of ARC and IATA. VIL currently runs concert tours and festivals in Europe, and has sent groups to China, the Philippines and (the former) Yugoslavia.”
“The group was actually so large we divided into two groups,” said John Young band director at Wills Point High School and on staff with the Lone Star Ambassadors of Music. “We had over 380 people going on the trip, so we divided it into 170 leaving June 9 and the rest just left on June 25. These students got to perform in amazing places, in front of great audiences and enjoyed sightseeing all across Europe for 16 days. It is a life changing trip for these young students.”
Young continued, “This trip has been going on for the north Dallas area bands for the past 15 years or so. voyagers International is the company that runs the Ambassador Band programs and many states participate. I have friends who are directors and they invited me to see if we would have and interested students from our county…[The] next trip will be in 2018.”
The students from Canton and Wills Point enjoyed a 16-day trip, crisscrossing the European continent from London to Paris to Venice, several stops in Austria, as well as stops in Germany, Switzerland and Lichtenstein.
“For me seeing the Swiss Alps was breathtaking. The historical events that happened in the many places we visited was incredible. We actually crossed the bridge that the Americans and Germans met to agree to stop WW II in Rothenburg, Germany,” said Young. “We visited the Louvre in Paris, we saw the Queen of England on her 90th birthday celebration pass right in front of us, the canals of Venice, the Matterhorn, Lake Geneva in Montreaux, Switzerland to mention a few.”
The Tiger Band will be back at work in short order, beginning preparations for the 2016-’17 school year with leadership team camp held July 18-20, Colorguard and drum line camp July 25-29, incoming 9th graders returning to work July 27 and the full Tiger Band reconvening July 28.
Young stated, “We are so excited for the upcoming year. Our staff and student leaders have been working very hard in preparation for a phenomenal year.”
