Band, front take on holiday parade

On Thursday, Dec. 30, the school band and band front performed in the city’s Christmas parade with many other floats and performers.

Ninth grader and majorette, Lizzie Plowman, marched in the parade as a majorette.

“The parade went really well. There were lots of really good comments, too,” Plowman said.

She has been twirling for 3 years. “I wanted to join, because it looked fun seeing all the other people doing it,” Plowman said.

This was not her first parade either.

“I have been in many parades, and the Christmas parade is definitely my favorite,” Plowman said.

Majorette adviser, Julie Storm, has been instructing the majorettes at Altoona for five years. She works with all the majorettes do, but this parade is one of her favorite parts.

“It is my favorite parade, because it is the biggest one and there are lots of people, so it helps the kids to get excited for it. It’s a nice time for the kids to get ready for the holiday season,” Storm said.

They did not have much time to learn the routines.

“We had three practices, so I would say they learned it in the first practice in about in hour and a half and then we cleaned it up in the next two practices,” Storm said.

Not only did the majorettes perform in the parade, but the band was also in it. Ninth grader, Emily Neil played the piccolo.

“I wanted to do this, because I like playing piccolo with other people in the band,” Neil said.

This parade was harder than others because of the weather.

“It was raining and cold, and made it hard for some instruments to be played,” Neil said.