BAND DIRECTOR'S UPDATE

Greetings, Grandview families! It's been a while!

1. THANK YOU! As football season is now in the rearview mirror, it's time to say a

1. HUGE thank you to the many, MANY of you that helped us get through this busiest time on our volunteer calendar. Each and every one of you who came out in a thunderstorm to help with the Decal Drive, who hustled to help us serve customers in the concession stands, who assisted with checking formal marching uniforms in and out, and who did so many other things - we are SO GRATEFUL for all of your efforts! Our acknowledgments here would be incomplete without specific shouts-out to the amazing Brenda Parker, who single-handedly led our concession operations for the second year in a row: Lisa Gladman and Elizabeth Toman, who stepped in and took over the formal uniform operations and ran them seamlessly; Rich Keil for managing our high school uniform orders; Emily Gephart for managing our massive middle school shirt ordering process; Jill Reichert for organizing recognition night for our seniors and their families; Sandy O'Harra and Karen and Adam Smith, who managed the senior banners every week; Jay McKelvey, Dave Schmied, and Bob Rutter, who took turns driving our equipment truck all over creation; and Molly Schmied and Janna Thompson-Chordas, who organized our 2022 Decal Drive back in August. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! 
2. MIDDLE SCHOOL FIELD TRIP: The GHBPA is very excited to announce that we are sponsoring another field trip and extended learning opportunity for our instrumental music students! Our directors have decided to take all 5th and 6th grade instrumentalists - in both the middle school band AND the middle school orchestra - to Ohio State for their Music Celebration Youth Concert on Friday, December 2. This annual event, returning for the first time since before the pandemic, is a fast-paced "collage style" concert involving multiple choral, jazz, symphonic, and orchestral performing groups. It should be a great experience for almost 200 of our youngest musicians! And, this is a good opportunity to once again thank EVERY ONE OF YOU who has ever helped us raise funds, since it's your efforts that make opportunities like this one possible. Thank you, thank you!
3. CHAPERONE VOLUNTEERS: If you have a 5th or 6th grade instrumentalist in your home, we'd like to invite you to serve as a chaperone the OSU field trip. Please click here to complete a quick formby November 18, to let us know if you are interested. Due to space limitations, the number of chaperones will have to be capped, so we will let you know before Thanksgiving if you have been confirmed for the trip. REMEMBER: all chaperones must have a current background check on file with the district; click here to check and see if yours is up to date, and if not, go ahead and complete the "Secure Volunteer" background check application that is available there as well, so you are ready to go.
4. UPCOMING CONCERTS: It's concert season, folks, and boy do we have a number of great performance opportunities coming up. The GH orchestra program -  comprising almost 70 students across grades 5 through 12 - will give its first concert of the year on November 15. The middle school bands will follow that up with their first concerts the next night, on November 16. And finally, the GHHS concert band and jazz ensemble will get us all into the holiday spirit with their annual holiday concert on December 8. More details to come for each event, but in the meantime mark your calendars NOW and plan to come see and hear our students in action!
5. COMMUNICATIONS: Now that the fall is behind us and the calendar becomes just slightly more manageable, our GHBPA communications will become a little less frequent as well - but we are never more than a click or an email away if you have any questions! Remember that you can visit our web site by clicking here and you can join our Facebook group by searching for @GHBandParents. You can also email us any time you want at this address - always glad to answer your questions and engage with you any way we can!