On October 19th, 2024, The Emerson Junior-Senior High School Marching Band performed at the Annual Wayne Hills Festival. This festival is a ranking event among selected bands. Participants included both small and large bands such as Garfield and Bergenfield, doing their best to entertain a very wide audience.

Emerson joined the competition with the help of Ms. Pascual in charge color guard, Mr. Haderthauer in charge of percussion, Mr. Gibbs assisting, and Ms. Correll in charge of the marching band, leading our school to success. Thanks to the efforts of Amelia Teigen (Drum Major) and Diana Tamayo (Assistant Drum Major), the band performed well, and played the songs “Greased Lighting”, “Extraordinary Girl” from the Broadway show American Idiot, and “I Have a Dream” from the Broadway show Mamma Mia. Everyone had a blast!

What were the results? The Emerson Junior-Senior High School got ranked with a very proficient score, earning the award of SILVER! 

Dylan Malec, one of the flute players, said, “I feel that we, as a band, have really grown and improved. We have been persevering these last few months, really working hard to improve our show, and I really feel that we deserve silver.” 

The Emerson Junior-Senior High School Marching Band worked diligently to make a show with a Broadway theme. It took music coordination, long hours of practice, and even wacky visuals and games, all to lead them to silver victory! 

Ms. Pascual made a promise that if the marching band did their best to get silver, she would allow the seniors to dunk her! So, what happened with that?  Did she make good on her promise? Yes! On October 23rd, 2024, the seniors got the pleasure of dunking Ms. Pascual with ice-cold water! 

“I made a deal with the marching band, and I was happy to deliver so if we ever get gold, we have to elevate that,” said Ms. Pascual.

“What would happen if we didn’t win? I guess we’ll never know!” Said both Ronnie Yun (Field Captain) and Olivia Karathomas (Color Guard Captain) before dunking Ms. Pascual. 

In Ms. Correll’s first year of her career here at EJSHS, she has already led the marching band to a silver success! Who knows, maybe next year the EJSHS will get gold and will get to dunk all the staff! 

Stay tuned!