“I’m extremely proud of their efforts here today.”

Those are the comments of Junction City High School Marching Band Director T.J. Taylor  following  the performance by the band in the National Memorial Day Parade in Washington D.C.

The band marched in the parade down Constitution Avenue from Seventh to 17th Street just past the White House and the Washington Monument.”We turned the corner and we cranked it up and we kept it going for a couple of blocks while we were in the TV zone as well as the review stand. We just got a lot of applause. It was a huge, huge crowd for this parade. So it was pretty inspirational for our students and me as well.”

Taylor said he had to be the most proud band director in Kansas and maybe the whole country right now. “Just to see these kids putting forth the effort. They didn’t slow down a bit and didn’t falter at all anywhere along the way.”

The band visited Arlington National Cemetery, the Lincoln Memorial, and performed in a standstill concert at the World War Two Memorial during their trip to the nation’s capitol. They are planning to arrive back in Junction City via charter bus Tuesday afternoon.

The band began their trip last Thursday and arrived in Washington D.C. about 26 hours later on Friday.