Striking Up the Band for an Honored Teacher

A Pico Rivera music teacher didn’t have to toot his own horn when he received a prestigious teaching award in Florida recently. That’s because he got to take his band with him.

Marching band teacher Ron Wakefield had 75 student musicians with him Nov. 19 when he was among the teachers honored at the American Teacher Awards at Walt Disney World in Orlando.

Disney paid the band’s travel expenses and also invited members to perform for a televised special on the award winners.

“I got to show them off to the world,” Wakefield said of his students, who are in grades five through eight at North Park Middle School.

Wakefield, one of 36 award winners, was the only honoree from a Southeast-area or Long Beach school.

His band has won more than 100 prizes during his three years at North Park. His efforts to inspire students include tales of his own adventures, such as his recent ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa. During difficult portions of the climb, he read letters of support his students had prepared in advance to keep him going, he said. He said he intends to use his $2,500 prize to pay for a trip to Switzerland. He wants to climb the Matterhorn.

The awards ceremony was aired on Nov. 19 and will be rebroadcast on The Disney Chanel Sunday at 5 and 7 p.m.