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Black Friday shopping in Wilkes-Barre minus the frenzy

Happy birthday to Jonathan Avery Hines!

<p>KINGSTON &#8212; We all went to see a good football game.</p><p>We ended up being blown away by the other team&#8217;s marching band.</p><p>The marching band of Liberty High School of Bethlehem played at halftime of the playoff game won by the Spartans of Wyoming Valley West and drew a standing ovation from the appreciative crowd.</p><p>The band, directed by Kevin Long, has 303 members &#8212; including a 31-member bagpiping and drum corps.</p><p>Long, 52, is a 1981 graduate of Liberty and played trumpet in the band that is rich with tradition.</p><p>&#8220;The band is a long-standing tradition in the community,&#8221; Long said. &#8220;The community has an expectation that the band is going to be at a certain level and the kids reach for that every year &#8212; to be as good as their predecessors, if not better.&#8221;</p><p>Long said the 303 members in this year&#8217;s band sets an all-time high for participation. He said some in the band are third generation members.</p><p>The band has played all over the U.S. and has travelled to Canada, England and Hawaii. In 2016, Long said the band will participate in the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.</p><p>They have marched in the Macy&#8217;s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Rose Parade, he said.</p><p>These kids, these trombone players, tuba players, clarinet players, flute players, drummers, majorettes and more are representing when they put on that uniform and perform. They represent themselves, their families, their school, their community, their state and their country.</p><p>And they do it well.</p><p>Long said he tells the kids to always strive to do their very best.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re a huge family,&#8221; Long said. &#8220;And a strong family only functions if everybody supports each other. We tell them to be be a good family, we each have to be good individuals.&#8221;</p><p>The Liberty band has those 24 bagpipers and 7 drummers, plus 20 tubas, 16 trombones, 16 french horns, 16 baritones (mini tubas), 36 trumpets, 40 flutes, 30 clarinets, 20 drummers (bass, snare and cymbals), 30 saxophones, 21 majorettes (with batons), 10 color guards and more.</p><p>Dr. Joseph Roy, Liberty School District superintendent, said it best after the Spartans football team defeated the Hurricanes.</p><p>&#8220;We won halftime,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Let it be noted that the Spartan band played before the game &#8212; it was not in competition with the Hurricane band. The Spartan band, like most local high school bands, has seen participation decline over the years. But those who still get involved are to be commended. They do their very best to represent their schools, just like the Liberty kids represent their school.</p><p>At Liberty, Dr. Roy told me the band is a tremendous tradition in the community. He credited the commitment of the kids and their families and a supportive community and school board. Roy said the participants represent a true cross-section of the Bethlehem community.</p><p>These ninth- through 12th-graders wear uniforms that are modeled after the Queen&#8217;s Coldstream Guards in London, England. The band has visited Buckingham Palace in the past to bond with their uniformed brethren.</p><p>Roy said the uniforms are paid for by the school district and replaced every 10 years. As far as the travel, that&#8217;s made possible by a rigorous and continuous fundraising effort, he said.</p><p>According to the band&#8217;s website, &#8220;students and parents have devised just about every fundraising project imaginable&#8221; &#8212; selling more than 1 million hoagies, plus countless pizza, pretzels, Tastycakes, Christmas trees and wreaths, flowers, cookies, candy, fruitcakes, pies, strombolis, fashion shows, raffles, discount cards, discount books, ice cream socials, Valentine&#8217;s Day socials (complete with card exchanges), 50&#8217;s Rock n&#8217; Roll dances, benefit concerts, car washes, postal truck washes (they used to wash the Broad Street Office fleet), and football concession stands.</p><p>Roy and Long said since 1926, there have been only four band directors: Joseph Ricapito (1926-61), Ron Sherry (1961-90), Greg MacGill (1990-2012); and Long, 2012 present. Long served as assistant director under MacGill since 1990.</p><p>Roy said Liberty&#8217;s enrollment in grades 9 through 12 is around 3,000 students.</p><p>&#8220;The band has always been a source of tremendous pride in the community,&#8221; Roy said.</p><p>They keep the bar high at Liberty. As Roy and Long said, the band is the face of Liberty High School and much more.</p><p>On a mild November night in Kingston, with the home team winning, it was refreshing to see the Liberty band and its dedication to an institution &#8212; marching band &#8212; that we just don&#8217;t see much of these days.</p><p>&#8220;Bandies&#8221; as they call themselves, seem to be disappearing faster than the glockenspiel, but those that remain faithful still enjoy the band life &#8212; many call their bands &#8220;family.&#8221;</p><p>Back in the 1960s, Plymouth High School&#8217;s marching band wore red and black uniforms as majorettes twirled batons and rifles and wore Indian headdresses. Such accessories are largely things of the past.</p><p>March on, Liberty.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Bill O&#8217;Boyle </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_Columnshot-1-7.jpg</photo0><caption0>Bill O&#8217;Boyle </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_Liberty-Band.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The 303-member Liberty High School Band played during halftime of the recent playoff game won by the Wyoming Valley West Spartans. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_Liberty-Band.jpg</photo1><caption1>The 303-member Liberty High School Band played during halftime of the recent playoff game won by the Wyoming Valley West Spartans. </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Bill O&#8217;Boyle</p><p>boboyle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

In Focus: Liberty High School marching band keeps tradition alive