Young Minnesotans prepare for the Festival of States night parade Monday, and their first beach experience.
By DONNA WINCHESTER
Published April 4, 2004
Through four long winters, Timarie Sura dreamed of sunshine and palm trees while snow piled up outside her window.
A print hanging on the band room wall at her Minnesota high school of a sunny Festival of States parade warmed her heart when the thermometer registered freezing temperatures outside.
Timarie knew that someday, if she continued practicing her clarinet and was able to save enough babysitting money, she would be marching down Beach Drive as bands from her high school have done in years past.
The 18-year-old's dream will come true on Monday when she and nearly 200 other members of the Grand Rapids High School marching band will strut their stuff in the SouthTrust Bank Illuminated Night Parade.
The parade, a signature event of the 83-year-old festival, gets under way at 8 p.m. More than 70 units, including six bands and 12 floats, will wind along the St. Petersburg waterfront. A fireworks show will follow about 9:30 p.m.
The Minnesota band members and their chaperones left 19-degree temperatures early Thursday morning aboard three buses that took them to the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, 31/2 hours south of Grand Rapids. They flew from there to Orlando, where they performed Saturday in a band competition at Walt Disney World.
Orlando's balmy 70-degree temperature was a welcome respite from a bitter winter.
"Everything is still brown in Grand Rapids," band director Mark Saiger said in a phone interview from Orlando on Friday. "There's a lot of mud and sludge still on the ground. It's really nice and clean here."
The band members are scheduled to arrive at the TradeWinds Sirata Beach Resort in St. Pete Beach around 2 p.m. Monday. After they unpack, practice and grab a quick dinner, they will head to the festival's downtown staging area and begin lining up for the parade.
But first, they plan to dip their toes in the gulf and fill their lungs with salt air.
Most of the students have never been to a beach. Many have never been on a plane. But they have been hearing about Florida for years from Saiger and band co-director Dale Gunderson, who brought Grand Rapids bands to the Festival of States in 1985, 1995 and 2001.
Their predecessors have been crowd pleasers at the annual St. Petersburg event in an era when tight school schedules and escalating travel costs have made visits from out-of-state bands increasingly rare.
This year, the students will be unable to stay for the day parade on Saturday, but they are looking forward to performing Monday night.
"I'm excited for our kids to be able to experience it," Saiger said. "When we get around St. Petersburg fans, it's just incredible. I've been telling the kids how much fun they're going to have."
The students plan to spend Tuesday on the beach and take a dinner cruise. They will visit Busch Gardens on Wednesday before heading back to Minnesota on Thursday.
The trip, which Saiger calls a once-in-a-lifetime experience, cost each student $1,350. The Grand Rapids community chipped in, but many of the students earned their way working part-time jobs. Many have participated in fundraisers since their freshman year.
Several of them said they were perfectly willing to spend it all on their six-day trip. Mike Cochran, 17, is looking forward to hanging out with his friends. Chelsea Weber, also 17, is happy for the chance to represent her town and her school.
Kim Siikanen, 18, who has never been farther south than Arkansas, expects it to be the high point of her senior year.
And Saiger is already looking forward to what has given him goose bumps on previous Florida trips: the moment when his students sink their toes in the sand and see the Gulf of Mexico for the first time.
"Their parents gave them the opportunity to be there, but I'm the lucky one who gets to witness their reaction," he said. "It's always a pretty special moment."
