Trinidad band is headed for D.C.

The mighty Miners of the Trinidad High School Marching Band will be strutting down Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., during the national July Fourth parade, in part because of contributions from Colorado Springs folks.

That was the word late this week from Kristi Zehr, vice president of the band boosters and tender of the band's blue uniforms and white gloves.

As late as this spring, it wasn't clear the band from this small, working-class town could afford to accept the prestigious invitation to be one of 18 nationwide to perform in the annual America's Independence Day Parade. A nearly yearlong string of fundraisers by the kids in the band, parents, local cops and the community had raised half of the $78,000 needed to transport and house 55 band members and 15 chaperones.

A story in The Gazette in early May prompted donations of more than $10,000, Zehr said, who expressed amazement and gratitude that people 160 miles away would care that much about Trinidad's kids. Recently, a golf tournament at Cougar Canyon, a scenic resort outside Trinidad, raised another $15,000. Those contributions, along with smaller ones over the past couple of months, put the kids over the top.

"We are definitely going. It's finally a reality," said Zehr, whose two children, Elizabeth and Ben, will perform with the band. "All the kids are very excited."

Raising the money in this quintessential Western town of 9,000 people, whose fortunes rise and fall with the mining industry, became a point of pride for many, including the town's mayor and police chief, who vowed to get the kids to D.C. somehow or another. Many of the teens in the marching band come from low-income families, some headed by single moms or grandmothers. Some in the band, Zehr said, are mothers and fathers, already saddled with grown-up burdens. More than a few have never flown or traveled outside the state. Most of those kids are excited, Zehr reported this week, but a couple are scared stiff.

Since school ended, the band has been practicing three hours a day.

The band plans to perform "Spirit of America," a medley that includes "America the Beautiful" and "God Bless America."

With more than 300,000 people expected to line D.C. streets for the parade, this will be the Trinidad kids' day in the sun, said Zehr, so they've been practicing a snazzy crisscross marching maneuver.

On June 30, there will be a big send-off in Trinidad at the football arena. The band will play. A big M constructed in a fire pit will be burned, and there might even be fireworks. The band's equipment and uniforms will be trucked to D.C. the next morning, and the kids will fly out of Denver International Airport early July 3 and return July 6.

Zehr said the trip is a culmination of a lot of hard work by a small town that doesn't have the wealth of many communities.

The band members' woolblend uniforms are 10 years old. Most instruments have the patina of age. And the banner the kids will carry down Constitution Avenue is more than 30 years old.

"It's seen some better days," Zehr said. "It's fading. But it's going to make the trip to D.C. It's a piece of our history."