In My Own Words: Twirlers in the Marching Band

By -

In My Own Words

In this installment of In My Own Words, Lauren Powell talks about being a member of the color guard twirling her baton.  

This year when I became a freshman at Lampeter-Strasburg High School, and I decided to join the marching band. At the end of my 8th grade year the middle and high school band director, Mr. Larry Royer, asked all of the 8th graders in concert band about joining high school marching band.

Julie Stinson and Lauren Powell warming up before our twirling debut
I always knew that I wanted to join marching band, but I had to choose between color guard and my clarinet. At my meeting with Mr. Royer, he mentioned a few of my teammates and I twirling during one of the songs. I have been twirling baton since I was in first grade, although I had never really thought of twirling in the marching band.

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to twirl. I told him that I'd love to twirl but he only wanted one routine with batons. I would be with the color guard with the rest of the show. I was kind of sad, but I kept thinking that one is better than none.
Stinson and Powell twirling at the McCaskey Coalition
Finally it was time for band camp! We worked on drills from noon to 9 pm every day for a week but at the end we found out we could not put baton in yet. My teammate, Julie Stinson, and I were sad, but we knew that soon enough we would be able to put baton in.

About six weeks later, during rehearsal we were able to add baton. One of the instructors, Ms. Eva Strawser, worked with us on adding baton. She wanted to have us be able to twirl the entire show rather than go back to flag with the rest of the guard.

She then came up with an idea for us to run in front of the band and twirl in front of the company front. Julie and I soon came up with a longer routine to keep twirling the entire show. Finally on September 29, we had the premier of baton twirlers in our show.

I am so glad I decided to twirl because it is the best feeling in the world to leap in front of the band and twirl in front of a stadium full of people. My favorite performance that we twirled was at the McCaskey Coalition. It was so cool having a giant set of bleachers full of people just there to see band performances.

--By Lauren Powell, LS News reporter

In My Own Words is a first person written series that highlights Lampeter-Strasburg High School students activities.

Popular posts from this blog

Rumble Fish Book Review

By -
Image
I recently finished reading  Rumble Fish  written by S.E. (Susan Eloise) Hinton and published in 1975. The book starts with Rusty-James on a beach and he runs into an old friend of his that he hadn’t seen in years, Steve. That’s when he flashes back to everything he and Steve had done and been through when they were kids. Rusty-James’ memory is all messed up, and he barely ever remembered much from his childhood, but seeing Steve made everything come back to him… and that was probably for the worst. Most of the book is from Rusty-James’ point of view (in a flashback) when he was fourteen years old. He was the toughest kid in his neighborhood… besides his brother, the Motorcycle Boy, of course. The Motorcycle Boy’s real name is never said, everyone just calls him the Motorcycle Boy because he was constantly stealing and riding motorcycles. He was older than Rusty-James and everyone in their neighborhood respected him and thought he was the coolest and toughest guy to step face on p
Read more

Advice: How to get straight As

By -
Image
Achieving straight As, or an unweighted GPA of 4.0, is the goal of many high school students. Getting straight As involves a lot of hard work, but it isn't impossible. Here is how I believe you can get all As. Do your homework. The number of students who do not do their homework shocks me. But doing your homework has many benefits and will help keep your grades up. Those five points you receive for a homework check matter, and when you get a 0 out of 5, it matters even more. Doing your homework also helps you learn the information, raising your test and quiz grades as well. Don't procrastinate. Procrastination is the downfall of many high school students who are capable of good grades. When you receive an assignment, do it ASAP. And when you are given the date of a test, start studying immediately instead of waiting and then cramming the night before. When you do this, you are likely to be less stressed, which increases the quality of the work you do. Don't put
Read more

Book Review: Read the story of 14-year-old 'Tex' an aimless, trouble-prone youth

By -
Image
Book Review Before school started, I went to Barnes & Noble to get a few books from my favorite author, S.E. (Susan Eloise) Hinton, to read as the year started. I got That was Then This is Now , Rumble Fish , (a third copy of) The Outsiders , and Tex .  I had already read The Outsiders at least nine times, I had finished That was Then This is Now , and I had just finished Rumble Fish , so I decided to pick up Tex and start reading. The author of these books writes them in the only way I can ever read books. First person point of view with a relatable narrator.  This one was told by the point of view of Texas (Tex) McCormick, a fourteen year old boy who is living with his brother Mason because they’re mom died when Tex was little and their dad walked out on them a few months back.Texas (Left) and Mason (Right) McCormick Texas believes that Pop (their dad) will be back soon, but Mason knows otherwise…or at least he thinks he does. Tex has a few close friends and is r
Read more