What is Straughn High School band director Will Parker’s recipe for excitement? Start by taking 45 high school marching band students, who have raised $65,000. Add 16 adult chaperons and a few busses bound for New Orleans. Now, mix in Alabama football, and you’ve got it.

Parker said that is exactly what members of the SHS Sound of Gold marching band will be doing later this month when they set out for a date to perform in this year’s Allstate Sugar Bowl in the New Orleans Superdome.

“The kids raised $65,000 (for the trip) in a little less than a year,” Parker said. “Every bit of it. We got sponsorships. We sold Pepsis; washed cars. You name it, and we’ve done it.”

Parker said all of the work will be worth it when his kids step out onto the field during the halftime show of this year’s Sugar Bowl, an opportunity he said is almost a year old.

“I received an email at work one day saying we had been invited,” Parker said.

One year and a lot of fundraising later, the band is ready to set off on their trip.

“We’ll be performing the music of the Beatles at halftime with 15 other bands from across the nation,” he said. “We’ll only have two days to practice – the day before and the day of.”

Parker said, while performing will take some hard work, his kids will also get a chance to kick back and have some fun.

“We are looking forward to going and watching Alabama,” Parker said. “We’re going to take a Riverboat jazz cruise and go to the World War II museum and the aquarium.”

Parker said the group will be in the big easy Mon., Dec. 30, through Sat., Jan. 3, and will get a chance to play some of their own music on two, still-to-be-announced, occasions.

“We’ll have two performances that feature just Straughn at two other places,” Parker said. “We’ll be playing a medley of Beatles songs for the game, but we’ve been playing the music of the band Boston all year.”

Although the students have completed fundraising for the trip, Parker said anyone interested in donating to the band may still do so, as there is still a need for new instruments and uniforms for the coming year.

To make a donation, Parker can be reached at SHS at 334.222.2511.