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PARENTS' LETTERS
Dan & Denise Reese
To Prospective New Members of the Dutch Fork Band, and to their parents…
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both…” How curious are the familiar stanzas of the Robert Frost poem.
We were fortunate to have participated in band programs in our high school and college years. For Dan, it was at Dreher High School and at USC. Denise was a member of the Jeffersonville High School band in Jeffersonville, Indiana. We know, first hand, the benefits that students will receive through participation. What we did not know, is the level of reward that we as parents would experience.
We have been band parents for 4 continuous years, at Crossroads, Dutch Fork Middle and now at Dutch Fork High School, with eleven years to go before the last of our three children finishes the Dutch Fork High School band program. And we could not be happier. What a powerful and awesome experience the band program is for our children and, for us the parents as well! We would like to invite you to join us. Don’t hesitate with the decision. You will be thankful you did.
It took us our first year to understand what the Dutch Fork Band program was all about and how we could find our place in it as new parents who knew nearly nothing about supporting a band. At first we had questions. Was this thing that took so much of our first daughter’s time something that she could handle? When would she come home from band? Why does she want to practice her clarinet so much? We certainly understand now and realize how incredibly blessed our children and family are, strengthened together through music and the activities leading to it through the Dutch Fork Band. As parents, we have not experienced anything that compares to the Dutch Fork Band program academically, socially and musically at any price.
You may already know that Dutch Fork is not just an ordinarily good high school. This is Dutch Fork High School, one of the highest ranked schools in the United States, with a band program that has earned state awards and honors. You must also know there are plenty of good high school band programs if you are looking for an average education and experience for your child. However, to be in a program of the highest quality is an honor and a golden opportunity for all of our children. And while it is a commitment with concomitant expectations, to be a parent helping the program is simply a no-brainer.
As a new Dutch Fork Band parent, you can expect your child to work hard starting in the summer. Your child will sweat and march, complain of sore muscles, laugh and play, but at the end of the each day, will set the alarm early to do it all over again the next day on the Dutch Fork band field. Camaraderie on the marching field follows quickly on the heels of new friendships that emerge on the field, at the water cart and at sectional practices. As soon as marching band ends in the fall, symphonic band starts and continues through the spring semester. Concerts that rival the musical literature and performances of a college ensemble are performed for parents and the Dutch Fork community at regular intervals to showcase their skills, talent, and hard work. They are the first to come and the last to leave. Band practice starts in August, they practice more hours than the football team can count, and play literally until the last day of school at graduation. And they cannot get enough.
As a new Dutch Fork Band parent, you should expect to be involved too! Parents who thought they would watch from the sideline are in the middle of the action. Literally, your child may be the one expressing their hearts through the music or dancing the most elegant musical interpretation in the guard, but in every sense of the word, you will also be in the band as an integral member of the program. This year alone we band parents served hundreds of breakfast bars in the mornings at band camp. We built props for the marching program, chaperoned 10 trips, purchased supplies, provided logistics and labor, and raised more than seventy thousand dollars to support the program under the direction of our top-notch directors and staff.
As a band parent, you will have the opportunity to add your unique skills and knowledge to the band family. You will get to be with your child, learn all of their band mates’ names, help them to succeed and be with the best group of parents on the face of the planet. While the Dutch Fork Band program does not have much money, parents more than make up for what is needed by the students and the director to achieve their vision for the program. You can do this too. Start slowly or jump in with both feet immediately. Once you do, we believe you too will get hooked on band program, understanding its intrinsic values as the music touches your soul. Not only will you be glad you did, you will wonder how you did not already know the wonder and joy of being a parent in the Dutch Fork Band.
Together we have laughed, cried, loved and been elated to the limits of human capacity when we saw our first child, a kid who was paralyzed with fear as a rising 8th grader, smiling with pride as she realized that her capacity to learn the marching music and drill was indeed within her ability. The pride that we felt when she completed her first real performance brought us to tears as we know how much work had gone into reaching that milestone. She had grown in every way that matters. She had learned the value of hard work, of being on time, the love of music, the reward of practice, the capacity to think clearly, to maintain herself physically and to communicate with her peers and the thousands of people in audiences over her years in the Dutch Fork Band program. She was in advanced courses. She worked hard and succeeded in other academic subjects. But nothing on earth is better preparing her for college and life like her experiences in the band program.
She (and our family) took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference.
Dan and Denise Reese
Dutch Fork High Band parents (2007-2012, continuing…2013-2016, 2017-2020) |
