The Huntington Blue Devil marching band wants you! The group wants you attend its upcoming pancake breakfast as it preps to march down Constitution Avenue in the National Independence Day Parade on July 4 in Washington, DC.
The Blue Devils will be the official representative of New York State in the parade, which is expected to draw a crowd of hundreds of thousands. All proceeds from the pancake breakfast will support the band’s three-day trip, which will include touring major historical sites. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.
The pancake breakfast is set for Sunday, February 9 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon at the Halesite Fire Department. Everyone is invited to attend from parents and friends of the band to the greater Huntington community. Tickets are $8 at the door for adults and $5 for students and senior citizens. Tickets can also be purchased online in advance by logging onto www.bandparentsofhuntington.net.
The breakfast includes unlimited pancakes for everyone attending as well as the usual breakfast trimmings. Blue Devil marching band members will be serving.
“The eighth annual pancake breakfast is an important fundraising event for the Band Parent Association of Huntington,” said Matt Stanley, the organization’s president. “We are proud and grateful to represent all of New York State at the 2020 National Independence Day parade at our nation’s capital, but we need funding to make sure that every student musician that wants to participate in this national parade in Washington D.C. can go.”
A promotional flyer for the breakfast features band drum major Michael Reed reprising the role of Uncle Sam in the World War I recruiting poster that exclaimed “I Want You For U.S. Army.” Mr. Reed’s poster cries out: “I Want You To Come To The Pancake Breakfast!”
For more information about the pancake breakfast contact event coordinator Tom Holly (tholly220@msn.com) or Mr. Stanley (917-923-7303).
The Blue Devils will march in the National Independence Day Parade with fellow top bands, fife and drum corps, military and specialty units, drill teams, dignitaries, celebrities and even equestrian units.
The Blue Devil band has traditionally been one of New York’s finest. It is known for its high musical quality, excellent arrangements, color guard choreography and powerful percussion arrangements.
Planning and preparations for Huntington’s participation in the national parade have been underway for months. Band Director Brian Stellato, District Director of Fine and Performing Arts Eric Reynolds and parent Tracy Tucker have been working on planning the trip.
Huntington High School music teacher James Cloyd Doty organized the first Blue Devil band in 1934. It was open to boys and girls in all four classes, according to the 1936 edition of The Huntingtonian, the high school yearbook. “Although newly organized, this group has worked very hard and with the cooperation of the student body, the band members have received blue and white uniforms,” states the yearbook. “They gave a new feeling of school spirit to all of the occasions at which they appeared this year.”
More than eight decades after its founding, the Blue Devil band is still going strong.