Ralston Valley Marching Band at a football game during the 2009 season. Photo by Tyler Glenn
Channel 9 news featured the Ralston Valley Marching Band on Nov. 24. The story, by Kim Christensen, was about freshman Derek Reimer and junior Melissa McNally, as well as director Ken Sawyer.
For those who don’t know, Reimer is a mellophone player in the marching band. He also happens to be blind.The story, available online at http://www.9news.com/seenon9news/article.aspx?storyid=127565, talks about Reimer’s attempts to march for various bands, all of whom said he could not. But Sawyer acted differently. He allowed Reimer to march with the rest of the band’s musicians.
He also chose McNally to guide Reimer, which meant she had to learn to play her instrument one-handed and essentially march for two.
The band placed 9th in state this year (one of Ralston Valley’s highest finishes ever) and is looking to continue to improve next year.