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NCCU, Western Carolina marching bands prepare for Rose Parade

SYLVA, N.C. -- Marching bands from two of North Carolina's public universities are hitting the road to perform in the Rose Parade on New Year's Day.

Hundreds of members of the Western Carolina University and North Carolina Central University marching bands were scheduled to leave Tuesday. The bands are among 22 from as far away as Japan to march in the annual, nationally telecast parade in Pasadena, Calif., on Saturday.

"I can't wait to see the faces on these kids when they turn down Colorado Boulevard" in Pasadena, Western Carolina athletic bands director Bob Buckner told the Asheville Citizen-Times.

The band from the university high in the Appalachian Mountains sought a Rose Parade invitation after winning the John Philip Sousa Foundation's 2009 Sudler Trophy, given yearly to the country's top college band.

Beyond traditional military and fight songs, Western Carolina's marching band performs rock and roll, hip-hop and even a little ska. The standard horns and drums are beefed up with an electric guitar and keyboards.

"It's very innovative," mellophone player Candice Boling said. "It's not like a traditional marching band."

N.C. Central's Marching Sound Machine is the first band from one of the state's historically black colleges to be invited to the Rose parade, The Herald-Sun of Durham reported.

Supporters of both schools had to raise vast sums of money to make participation possible at a time public universities are stretched by tight state budgets.Western Carolina band members sold sponsorships and ran fundraisers to collect the estimated $650,000 needed to send nearly 400 band members and staff to California. "It's a hell of a lot of money," Buckner said. Three tractor-trailers were needed to haul all of the band's equipment.

NCCU anticipated it would cost $500,000 for the 250 band members to take part. Fundraising efforts included the donated use of two 18-wheelers, which a division of Wal-Mart is using to cart the band's instruments, equipment, luggage and uniforms from Durham to California and back.

The transportation services division of Walmart is sending the 18-wheeler across eight states and back in the largest donation received in support of the Tournament of Roses campaign, according to a news release from NCCU. The donation is valued at about $100,000.

 Article Courtesy of wral.com