The Summer Celebration parade on Saturday morning, July 14, is at its best when the band is there. Musicians, mark your calendars! Students: remember your cadences and keep your chops fresh and plan to be there! Alums: dust off those instruments and start working out! All older players: you are “in,” also!

I am honored to be helping organize this year’s band. The Mercer Island Community Marching Band has marched the past two summers — under the guidance of Mercer Island’s elder marching statesman, Bert Pound, who played in the UW drumline in the 1930s (yes, the 1930s). It has been fun for the band to be able to give back to an appreciative community assembled along the parade route. This should be especially true this year for the many MIHS band members who enjoyed the privilege of representing their community at the Rose Parade in Pasadena: you have the opportunity to ensure that we have a respectable community marching band in this year’s parade.

It’s important to have the greatest possible turn-out. There will be one rehearsal on Thursday, July 12, at Emmanuel Episcopal Church on the Island (two blocks west of the library), 6:45 to 9 p.m. Sign up, come to the two-hour rehearsal, and to the approximately three hours of fun we will have at the parade. That’s it!

Please call or email me at davidmenz@earthlink.net as soon as possible, and visit www.facebook.com/MercerIslandCommunityBand for updates.

Dave Menz