Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- The Mat-Su Borough School Board didn't give Colony High School band director Jamin Burton the $25,000 he needed to get the state's only marching band to Washington, D.C., for President-elect Barack Obama's Inauguration Day parade.

But he's still hoping to get the 46 students, 10 chaperones and their equipment to the capitol for the Jan. 20 event, even if takes a lot of elbow grease.

Burton said he's been working the phones and the airlines to bring down the costs of the trip. He figures he's only about $6,000 short, so close he says he can't give up.

"We thought we've been dead in the water a couple times," he said. "But every time we get there and look at throwing in the towel, we think: 'We got invited to do this by the president-elect on a monumental historic occasion, to possibly play for the biggest audience ever.' We just look at it and say, we have to do that."

The school board held a special meeting Monday and voted on the funding request. The vote ended in a tie vote of 3-3, which meant the request for funding failed.

Originally, Burton estimated the cost of the five-day excursion at $100,000, which included airline tickets to Washington, D.C., meals and lodging. He managed to squeeze that down to $67,000, mostly by changing the airline tickets to fly into Newark, N.J. instead of D.C. That saved $500 a person, although it will mean busing the kids to get to D.C., he said.

He also lined up free lodging after a church in Virginia, the Lord of Life Lutheran Church, offered their facilities to the group. Burton said the church heard about the group because a relative of one of the students lives in the Virginia area.

Burton also got the airlines to do something all fliers these days wish for -- waive their baggage fees at least for the first two bags. That's a big help considering all the trombones, drums and other instruments the students will need to pack.

Burton said the band plans to continue fundraisers, including playing at two local hockey games this weekend and holding a fundraiser at the church in Virginia.

Burton had earlier set up a deadline in December for deciding whether to make the trip. He now says his deadline for raising the funds is Jan. 10. He currently has more than $40,000 pledged from local residents and businesses for the trip.

If the band makes the trip, the students will join hundreds of people who will parade in the historic event. Burton said the 1.6-mile route will include a pass over the White House lawn and is expected to take 28 minutes, or as he thinks of it, 28 minutes at 120 beats per minute.

Find S.J. Komarnitsky online at adn.com/contact/skomarnitsky or call 352-6714.

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