Westfield Band "Smells the Roses," Begins Countdown to Pasadena Parade

The Westfield High School varsity football team didn't make it to the state championship this month, but the school is about to be known for an arguably greater, extracurricular honor—participation in the Rose Parade on the day of 100th Rose Bowl Game. 

The 273-member band and 40 chaperones will leave Chantilly for Pasadena on Dec. 27. There, the band will march in the Rose Parade on New Years Day, the only Fairfax County School in history to do so. 

The band will appear on television around noon, during the second hour of the parade, which happens to be the most-watched hour, said Jim Carpenter the Westfield High School Rose Parade Committee co-chairman. 

The parade begins at 11 a.m., Eastern Standard Time and 8 a.m. Pacific Time. 

It is one of only two bands in the entire parade that will stop at tv corner, where they will perform a one-minute piece before national television cameras, he said. 
A list of television stations broadcasting the parade is here. 

The band is the 52nd group in the processional. Look for them between the 2013 Rose Bowl Hall of Fame inductees and NBC's "The Voice" Float. 

This year's parade theme is,"Dreams Do Come True," a theme that's more than fitting for the Westfield band, because being among the roses isn't an easy task.
It has been 15-month process started by Westfield band director Stephen Panoff, himself and others, Carpenter said.  

The process is so long that some of the band members playing in the parade have already graduated from the high school last year. One band member even graduated the year before last, Carpenter said. 

The application itself fills a three-ring binder. 

And transporting a band of teens across the country isn't cheap. It costs about $1,600 per student, but that cost was knocked down to about $1,375, thanks to fundraiser efforts, Carpenter said. 

The school managed to raised more than $100,000 for the trip. Carpenter said they are proud of that goal even it is short of the $270,000 they'd hoped to raise. 

A Carmack Moving and Storage in Centreville donated the use of a 53-foot tractor trailer to transport the students' instruments and gear across the country. The donation is worth abut $35,000-the cost of renting a truck that size and hiring a crew for the cross-country journey. That truck leaves on Friday, Dec. 20.

While Westfield was accepted the first time they applied to the Rose Parade, many programs have to apply two and three times before being accepted, Panoff told Patch in a previous report. 

The students as well 300 close friends and family, who organized their own companion trip, will be in California for about a week, soaking up sun and other activities before heading back to Chantilly. 

Are you proud of those watching bulldogs or what? Will you watch the parade? Tell us in the comments.