The Gridley High School Band will represent California and hundreds of supporters this week at Pearl Harbor and in a parade through the streets of Honolulu.
The 80-member band and about 30 adults will depart today for Hawaii.
The band, along with parent boosters and the Gridley community, spent more than a year raising the $130,000 necessary to make the trip and participate in the parade marking the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
The Pearl Harbor Parade Committee invited bands from states whose names were on battleships damaged or destroyed in the Dec. 7, 1941, attack. The bands will represent their home state as well as the ship.
The Gridley band was the only California band to accept the invitation, and it took on the daunting fundraising task.
Larry Isaacson, father of a band member and trip coordinator, said about 70 percent of the funds came from people who donated $100 or less.
"It is important for people to understand that every penny counted," he said.
Many of the supporters were veterans or people who recalled their own experiences playing in high school bands.
Isaacson said the band held a veterans appreciation dinner a couple of weeks ago to thank local veterans for their service and support.
"We saw how important this was to veterans, regardless of what war they fought in," he said.
Band director John Haeberle said band members will visit the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, and the USS Missouri, the ship on which the Japanese surrendered.
On Wednesday, they will assemble with nine or 10 other high school bands, some from as far away as Maryland and Georgia, at Fort DeRussy Field, where they will be welcomed by the mayor of Honolulu and the governor of Hawaii.
The parade will begin at 6 p.m. and proceed for a mile along the city's main thoroughfare, what Haeberle described as "hotel row."
In honor of the USS California and their home state, the Gridley musicians will play "California, Here I Come."
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