BY PEPPER FISHER
Chimacum – Chimacum High School students learned at their annual Veteran’s Day assembly that their marching band has been selected to participate in next year’s National Independence Day Parade in Washington, D.C., to mark the country’s 250th birthday.
Chimacum School District Superintendent Scott Mauk says their Jefferson County school is the only one in the state that will be part of what he described as more than a once-in-a-lifetime event.
“Everybody realizes that this isn’t just a once-in-a-lifetime event. This is a once event. We’re not going to get a 250th anniversary again. And so, for us, it’s really about making sure that folks know that this is just such a great way to represent our state, and an honor for our school district.”
Mauk said he found out about the band’s selection in August, and had to keep it secret until it was the right time to make the announcement.
“So, I’ve known about this for quite a while now, and of course, like any really great secret, it’s been brutal to try and hold it in. But I will tell you that we started talking about this in August and had a sense that this was going to happen. So, I knew about it enough to hold the secret, so to say. It was terrible. It was awful.”
Mauk gives much of the credit to the one music teacher in the district, Director Daniel Ferland, who started in 2024. Since then, the band won the best band of the day out of 25 in this year’s Loyalty Days Parade in Long Beach, and several students have racked up individual musical honors.
“Yeah, you bet. Daniel’s been a real shot in the arm for our program. He is really committed to music in general. He does a lot of work with youth and music outside of his work as band director. He’s also our elementary school music teacher, so he’s building the farm team for a future program. He aspires to do these kinds of things. He does not think small. And he makes it happen. And I’m really proud of him. I’m proud to have him on board. I’m proud that he’s a Chimacum Cowboy, and I think he’s going to keep making the band pretty special.”
Mauk said there’s a lot of preparation that will go into getting ready for next summer’s big event. The marching band will have a lot of practicing to do, of course, but they’ll need to do some serious fundraising, as well.
“They’re going to need to start making money to fund this trip. I think, at our last calculation, we think we need to raise about $100,000 for travel and expenses while they’re in DC. And I think they probably need to find cooler band uniforms. Our band uniforms are really cool to look at, but they are not cool to play on July 4th in Washington, D.C.”