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“This is our last run-through,” band director Steve Michaels said Wednesday. “We are doing this for our veterans. Show your pride.”
He blew his whistle three times, the drums started their cadence and the marching band began to move north along South Eighth Street.
The annual Memorial Day Parade in La Crosse on Monday is the only time students at Lincoln Middle School march in public.
Seven class periods this spring were devoted to learning “On Wisconsin” and practicing the steps, Michaels said.
A proposal written in 2002 by Michaels and the former Logan Middle School band director allowed the special project to be included, he said. Hand-me-down equipment was available from Logan High School, and, this year, a La Crosse Public Education Foundation grant replaced four drums.
“It is important for the kids to know that one of the things music can do is serve the community,” Michaels said. “Playing in the Memorial Day Parade is important.”
Seventh- and eighth-grade students found keeping in step challenging and wanted to make sure to do it right in Monday’s parade.
Those who’d marched before helped with corners and demonstrated the “glide step.”
“I liked being in it last year,” said Zach Mathison, a 14-year-old eighth-grader who plays the sousaphone. “It was a long route and my legs hurt, but everyone cheers for you.”
Seventh-grader David Nigon, 13, found it tough to walk and play his trumpet.
He bumped his teeth and lips a few times before mastering the glide step.
“You really have to improve quick,” Nigon said. “Right away when I started, I hurt my mouth.”
Megan Mikkelson, who is in eighth grade, anticipated her drum would get heavy by the end of the route. But, the 14-year-old said, “It will be worth it.”
If You Go
La Crosse’s Memorial Day Parade will begin at 9 a.m. Monday at Sixth and King streets and then go east on King to 11th Street, continue north on 11th to State Street, and then proceed east on State to West Avenue, where it will continue north to Badger Street. On Badger, the parade will head east to Oakland Avenue, on to Forest Drive and cross La Crosse Street to enter Oak Grove Cemetery via the Losey Arch. A program will be in Oak Grove Cemetery at 10:15 a.m., with a performance by the Logan High School band and a short civil ceremony.
Autumn Grooms can be reached at (608) 791-8424 or agrooms@lacrossetribune.com.
