The communities of Harmony, Preston, and Fountain were represented Wednesday, June 11, by the Fillmore Central High School Band at a very public venue: Walt Disney World.

The band's weeklong trip to Orlando, Fla., began bright and early on Monday, June 9, with a 28-hour bus ride. Our two charter buses went through Metropolis, Ill., (home of Superman), the largest truck stop in America, and seven different states before finally reaching our destination.

On Tuesday afternoon, the band arrived in Orlando, and immediately headed off to the Typhoon Lagoon, the Disney water park. There were a bunch of water slides, a lazy river and a wave pool that shot out a massive wave every few minutes.

The park was really fun, but my favorite part of that day was when it started pouring rain as we were getting ready to leave. Everyone made a mad dash to the bus, but it was raining so hard that it didn't even matter if we ran or walked because everyone was soaked to the skin anyway.

That night, after it stopped raining, the buses took us to Disney Quest, a five-story arcade with everything from Ski Ball to a virtual magic carpet ride. We also had the opportunity to go shopping in downtown Disney, where the biggest Disney store is located.

Wednesday began at the House of Blues, where after a nice little breakfast buffet, the Blues Brothers - a Jake Blues impersonator and our band director, Lane Powell, as Elwood - performed a song and then led everyone in a giant conga line.

Next, we made our way to the Magic Kingdom, Disney's main park that is home to all the characters and classic Disney rides like the spinning teacups. After entering the park by way of a ferry, everyone flocked to the three big rides: Thunder Mountain (a rollercoaster), Splash Mountain (a water coaster) and Space Mountain (an indoor coaster). Wednesday was a day full of waiting for riding and in some people's cases, getting stuck on the many rides. One Fillmore Central group got stuck on a ride three different times in just one day, including being on Splash Mountain when it broke down for the first time in 18 years.

At about 7 p.m., the band got to experience something very few people ever see: backstage Disney. We saw the behind the scenes action and the characters with their heads off. Unfortunately, they have a strict no-camera policy - otherwise I'd be displaying a photo of a man wearing the costume of Snow White's evil queen.

The marching itself was highly successful. It was an incredible feeling when those big green doors opened and we marched out through a crowd of an incalculable amount of people. Also, everyone in the band wore a ribbon bearing the initials SD on their uniforms in memory of Steven Daskam, who made this trip so much more possible with the countless hours of planning he put in.

After we finished marching, we rushed out to get a good location from which to watch the grand finale of the evening, a beautiful fireworks display behind Cinderella's castle.

Thursday was our double-park day. We all ate breakfast at the Rainforest Café and then headed off to the Animal Kingdom, my personal favorite park. The first thing I did there was to go on a safari ride where we saw gazelles, lions and the like. After my group got off the ride, we were greeted by a couple of Disney employees who gave us all Dream Fast Passes that let us skip the lines on all the big rides in that park as part of Disney's Year of a Million Dreams.

The best ride there in my opinion was called Everest, which was a rollercoaster where you go up a really big hill and then stop and all of a sudden go sliding backwards into a pitch-black cave.

After a morning of great fun at Animal Kingdom, we moved on to Epcot, which is a park with a bunch of shows, rides and a big circle of districts that each represented a country. All the different nations were really interesting to visit because for example, Japan had a store full of kimonos and Hello Kitty stuff, a restaurant with all Japanese food, a show with Japanese drummers, and everyone who worked in that whole district was from Japan.

At the end of the night, we all gathered together to watch "Illuminations," a show with fireworks, fire and lights - all done from the middle of a lake.

Friday, our final day in Orlando, began with the loading of our luggage into the buses. After everything was packed and we had checked out of the hotel, we proceeded on to Planet Hollywood for breakfast. Most everyone agreed that Planet Hollywood was the best of the breakfast locations because not only was the food amazing, but we were also entertained with videos and a trivia game that had us running around all four stories of the building.

The last park we visited was Hollywood Studios, formerly MGM, where everything is movie themed. There were really only two rides there, but they were both awesome. The first was the Rock n' Roller Coaster, which was indoors and had an Aerosmith theme. The second was the Tower of Terror, which was based on the Twilight Zone, and was an elevator where you got shot up and down randomly, like the Power Tower at Valleyfair. There was also a bunch of different shows throughout the day. I went to the Indiana Jones stunt show, which was really interesting, and a half-hour long show of Beauty and the Beast.

The last thing we did before leaving Orlando was watch "Fantasmic," a show with a ton of water effects and all the big Disney characters. Before the show started, the band got the whole audience doing the wave, but then it just kept going and going and we couldn't get it to stop. Eventually it died out and the show started and there was plenty of "ooh"- and "ahh" -ing.

After the show, everyone dragged their sticky, exhausted selves back on to the buses and we began the journey home.

Overall, the band trip was absolutely fantastic. We have started a new tradition in excellence that I'm sure will be carried on for many years to come.

I believe I can speak for the whole band when I say that we are so grateful to all the people who made this experience possible for us, firstly the parents and chaperones for their support, time and money they put in. Second, we give thanks to Steve Daskam, for his unbelievable dedication to this band and for doing so much to help us get this far. And lastly, we thank our director, Mr. Lane Powell, for making us exceed every expectation and for making this trip possible in the first place.