By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The COVID pandemic threw many things off kilter. One of those things was the trip schedule for Great Bend High School orchestra students. Last year, the USD 428 Board of Education approved a small trip to Colorado. Getting back on schedule for larger trips, 6-12 Orchestra Instructor Aubrey Maneth asked the board Monday evening for approval of a New York City trip at the end of the 2024-25 school year.
"We asked them where do you want to go? What do you want to experience?," Maneth said. "Several have never been on a plane before. Several have never seen a symphony. Some of them have never seen any sort of Broadway experience, opera experience, or anything on a huge musical scale they've never experienced before."
Day one of the trip will include a flight from Wichita or Kansas City to New York City where students will eat dinner and explore Times Square. Day two will include a personal one-hour Broadway workshop from a performer to be seen in a show later, and a Broadway Show or performance at the Metropolitan Opera House. Day three includes stops at the Museum of Broadway and the Museum of Natural History. That day will conclude with dinner at Gayle's Broadway Rose where aspiring performers serve as singing waitresses, and a performance from the New York Philharmonic. Day four will be a cultural one with stops at the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. The students will return home on day five.
"It's super inspiring just to go out and watch people perform," said 6-12 Orchestra Instructor Erica Pinkston. "These are people that do the things those kids are doing right now. We all start somewhere, and these kids are starting somewhere. This kind of gives them that kick of, 'If I really put my mind to it, I can probably do something like this.' It doesn't matter where you are but it matters where you're going."
The board voted unanimously to approve the trip, which will cost each student approximately $2,200. Several fundraisers are already in the works. There are now approximately 45 orchestra students, and Maneth said approximately 80 percent have expressed interest in making the trip, which will take place the week after the final day of school in May.