Certain instrumental musicians feel the call to keep playing, to work together with other musicians to produce an exciting sound, and to keep giving their gift of music to others. Those are the types of players — over 50 of them — who responded to the call of the Mercer Island Community Marching Band that played for us on Saturday at the 2012 Summer Celebration parade. I’m in awe of them.

They included sixth and seventh-graders (some who’ve never marched), expert high school marchers (with their recent seven-mile Pasadena Rose Parade experience), cousins visiting from out of state, MIHS band alums, college and university students, fathers and sons, mothers and sons, grandparents, and adults young and old from the greater Mercer Island area.

I know they had fun together in their quick, one-week run-up to the parade.

And they looked and sounded great.

This year’s Mercer Island Community Marching Band was made possible by the generosity of the following: the players and their families; Emmanuel Episcopal Church for rehearsal space; the doctors of Mercer Island Pediatrics; Parker Bixby and MIHS marching band for instruments, the UW marching band and its director Brad McDavid for support and musicians, Bellevue Community Band for its support and musicians, 95-year-old Bert Pound of Mercer Island, and the 15-year-old who composed our Fanfare this year. I’m grateful to all of them for helping create the experience and the memories to last until next year’s parade.

Dave Menz