The Newtown High School Marching Band & Guard earned its highest marks of the season at the annual Joseph P. Grasso Festival home show on September 29 at Blue & Gold Stadium. The evening included six local school bands competing while the NHS Marching Band & Guard performed in judged exhibition.

The NHS Singers, under the direction of NHS Choral Director Jane Matson, performed prior to the show and sang the National Anthem. Later, the six local schools competed in the USBands event.

After its judged exhibition performance, NHS’s group earned a score of 86.825 in Group IV Open — its highest score of the season. The evening ended with recognition of 19 band and guard seniors.

The Grasso Festival is an annual event that requires many hours of preparation. Roughly 100 volunteers — including parents, alumni parents, and siblings — contributed by completing various tasks.

Volunteers worked in the pit crew, parking control, gate admissions, as monitors and runners, helping with food preparation and serving at the Snack Shack, selling of air- and candy-grams, running a bake sale, meeting and greeting the other school bands, assisting judges, holding a 50/50 raffle, and more.

NHS Band Parents Corp (NHSBPC) President Laura Taylor noted that the reward of volunteering is “to share experiences with our kids and support their interests” as well as “being an ambassador of Newtown’s strong community character.”

The group’s next competition will be Saturday, October 6, at Stratford’s Bunnell High School.

For more information about the band and guard and its events, visit newtownbandandguard.weebly.com.