Leander Band History Night

The Leander Band History Night is an event held to celebrate our band’s 60+ years of history. The night of education and reflection provides an opportunity for not just students to learn about the past of their organization, but also an opportunity for past directors to come back and speak on their legacy. Along with the alumni directors, we also bring back old uniforms, pictures, awards, and other memorabilia to further emphasize our rich past.

The objectives of History Night are to preserve and honor the rich and eventful history of the Leander Band. We wanted to remind the students of how much work and care was put into the last 50 years of building this program as we continue to build and grow. While we focus on the present in our day to day, it’s important to remember all of the people and events that came before us to set us up for where we are today, and that we are shaping the future of the program for future band students.

From our Band President, who worked on this project: “Students were the focus audience because they are the most important part of a band program. I know this is true, because at the end of the day, we would not be having history night without the students. The students create the culture and traditions, and it’s important that we teach those same things to the new generations.”

January: Began searching for information on past directors, began sending emails inviting them to participate.

March: Began to communicate about the event with the cureent directors and get a date secured.

May: Started searching for previous uniforms / historical pieces to be displayed at the event.

June: Finalized guest speakers and began to plan out the order of events.

July: Began creating the presentation and ending video.

Our Band President’s dad, Mr. Jeremy Spicer, and our head band director, Mr. Ryan Sirna, were the two to help our student leader put these ideas into reality. Mr. Spicer helped come up with the idea, and Mr. Sirna helped execute it as a social event for the full band and color guard.

We used many old VHS tapes, CDs, speaking with alumni, and YouTube videos as resources to fully understand our history.

Promotion wise, this was a planned, required event for the band and color guard, so it was not needed.

Little to no cost. All items acquired through donation to the initiative/band program.

The hardest challenge was the actual history part of this event. Our band was incorporated sometime in the mid 1950s. Over the course of these past 60+ years, many uniforms, documents, and trophies have unfortunately been lost. For the first year, we had to start with what we already had; we have since been doing extra outreach with alumni and working together to help bring more pieces of history back. We have been able to spark interest with alumni through social media, as well, to encourage more alumni and past directors to contribute to documenting our history. Sometimes, this is through donations of past items and photos, and sometimes this is through having a conversation/interviewing a past director to get their stories and memories from their time with our program.

Yes, our initiative was effective. Our students all have an increased understanding of where our band program started from, especially in a large district that supports our fine arts programs at a high level. Being able to see the growth and development of the program since its inception has given our students a new perspective and fostered a higher level of gratitude for what we are able to accomplish in the current, modern era of our band program. In our current world, to be able to have physical and living history come through our doors for our students to see is impactful for every person that works with and in the program.

History Night positively impacted everything about our community. It not only taught the students about the many great years of history, but also was posted online everywhere for all the alumni to see. Now, we have created a connected community, who can all relate to each other from one thing, The Leander Band.

Reach out to alumni and the community! There are people in the community today that were part of our band program – some are now band directors, some are back as band parent volunteers, others are community members around town. Be excited to learn history directly from the people that created it!

We will be doing history night again, and will be making stronger efforts to emphasize the Color Guard. This year, we will be displaying lots of guard items, such as old costumes, and flags, and bringing more attention to the specific contributions and history of the Color Guard in the Leander Band program (which even ties us to our dance team, the Blue Belles!).