After the Andrews High School band was involved in a fiery Nov. 19 crash that left its band director Darin Johns and longtime retired teacher Marc Boswell dead, the Andrews Chamber of Commerce didn’t bother them to play in the annual Christmas parade.
Nohemi Sanchez, the executive director of the Andrews Chamber of Commerce, said she felt it wasn’t proper to ask the AHS band to play after its traumatic experience and she didn’t want to put anymore stress on what they were going through.
However, Sanchez said an official from the AHS band reached out to her on Nov. 23 and told her that more than 20 schools had offered to send students to play in the annual Andrews Christmas Parade.
As of Thursday afternoon, that number had climbed to 22 to 28 bands. Jimmy Olague, assistant director of the Odessa High School marching band, said that he has heard upward of 40 bands.
“It’s very emotional and it’s very heartwarming for the community to know that we have such support from all surrounding areas, not just in the Permian Basin, but the whole state of Texas and throughout the United States,” Sanchez said. “We have received such support from everybody reaching out to either volunteer or monetary donations or making sure that everyone is being taken care of, especially those band students that were affected.
“We can’t show our gratitude enough.”
To accommodate the high influx of bands, Sanchez said she had to speak with city officials about the parking for the charter buses.
Sanchez said the parade route also had to be altered. It was stretched to more than a mile long, which doubles the original parade route. That parade route increased again on Thursday by adding another three city blocks.
“When all these bands started reaching out, that’s when it became real to us that our parade wasn’t sufficient enough to host that many students and that big of a crowd,” Sanchez said. “I had to reach out to all my community leaders and ask for help. It took a whole army to plan this, but I’m so proud to live in Andrews where we are a very tight community and we show our support wherever it is needed.”
One of the bands that will be in attendance is the Odessa High School marching band.
Olague said when he initially asked on Tuesday if anyone wanted to go about 20 students raised their hands. Olague found out Wednesday afternoon that a bus to take them to Andrews would be available.
On Thursday morning, Olague told the students that a bus would be available and he said that number doubled to about 40 students.
“As soon as we told the kids they were really quick to step up and volunteer, which was fantastic,” Olague said on Thursday morning. “I wasn’t expecting them to do that. The other great thing is how quickly ECISD were able to get us a bus to take to Andrews.”
The students will leave OHS at around 4:30 p.m. Friday and arrive around 5 p.m. in Andrews.
Olague said the students are excited as they will learn and practice the piece of music that they will play during the parade with everyone else about an hour before the start of the parade.
“They are going to rehearse with everybody,” Olague said. “We are going to learn the song that we are going to perform right there at the parade site an hour before.
“They are excited about the challenge and they are eager to see how it’s going to work out.”
Sanchez said it has been humbling to see the outpouring support for the AHS band and the Andrews community as a whole.
“I don’t even know how to express myself on how lucky we are,” Sanchez said.
