South Florida high school band to perform at Presidential Inauguration in need of financial help

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. (WSVN) -- A South Florida high school marching band is hoping to drum up enough donations to march down Pennsylvania Avenue as a part of President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration.

When it comes to making music, the J.P. Taravella marching band knows a thing or two as they are rated one of the best high school bands in the state. The Trojans are also the only high school from Florida selected to perform at the Presidential Inauguration Parade on Jan. 20. "Everybody is super excited. Just as soon as we found out everyone was jumping through the roof," said Ethan Morrison.

As thrilled as they are at the invite, the 200-plus band members are faced with a dilemma, they'll have to pay their own way to D.C. "We are in desperate need of some financial help. We've raised $25,000 so far, but we're still in need of at least $50,000," said Morrison.

"Hopefully some people in South Florida will come through and help us out with some financial assistance," said Band Director Neil Jenkins.

The students were chosen from among nearly 1400 applicants to participate. "We've worked really hard, and the people who came before us worked really hard to get us to where we are right now, so we're definitely, really excited," said Morrison.

The students are hoping South Florida will come through and come out of pocket to help make this once in a lifetime opportunity come to light, but despite the set back, the students are more than ready to play in the historic event.

They said the key to being such a success is practice. "We just practice and practice and practice to make everything really, really good, and that's what we want to show to everybody else," said Yeji Kim

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