"Palmerton Area High School Concert Band - Superior."

Those were the words of the announcer at the awards ceremony for the "Music In The Parks" adjudication in Williamsburg, VA. There were eight bands in Palmerton's category (high school Class A), and Palmerton was the only one to receive the highest rating. Of 28 total instrumental groups performing there, including junior and senior high bands, orchestras, and jazz bands, only four received Superior ratings, putting Palmerton in a very elite group.Participating schools in the Busch Gardens event came from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine.Scott Lambert, supervisor of Music Education at James Madison University, was one of the adjudicators, and among his comments about Palmerton's performance were "Very musical, very nice." "There are some really fine musicians up there on the stage." "Great individual musicians and in total ensemble you did very well; really good training and preparation." And "A very pleasant surprise, sometimes big things do come in small packages."The band left Palmerton Thursday morning and stopped in Washington, D.C., for four hours. While there, the travelers visited sites including the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of American History, the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, and the Korean War Veterans Memorial.They continued on to Williamsburg that evening and experienced six hours of educational touring around Colonial Williamsburg under beautiful clear skies on Friday. Friday night, after a stop at Golden Corral, they returned to the Olde Towne for a very interesting ghost tour, learning about residents of the colonial times as well as customs, beliefs, and even origins of some words used in everyday vocabulary today.On Saturday, the band performed at the adjudication, enjoyed a picnic lunch at Busch Gardens, received their Superior rating at the awards ceremony, and even had a few hours left to enjoy the rides and attractions at the park.Sunday morning they loaded the bus and headed for home with a stop on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, that man-made miracle of modern engineering that opened in 1964.When the bus pulled onto Delaware Avenue at around 6:30 p.m. Sunday evening, the students were pleasantly surprised to find a welcome in the form of the West End Fire Company, who escorted them the rest of the way back to the high school with sirens a-blaring to celebrate their outstanding musical accomplishment.The only senior on the trip, Billy Heinick, summed it up simply, saying, "Awesome band trip, probably one of the best ever."