Fayette

County High School Band's dream trip to the 2000

Olympics in Australia is off, according to Jeff

Anderson, co-chairman of the schools' trip

committee. The band organizers received word last

night that the Sydney Olympic Committee had

rescinded invitations to what they referred to as

"foreign nationals" to participate in

opening ceremonies.

Too

many foreigners and not enough Australians, was

their reason, Anderson said. "We're 99.9

percent sure we're not going," he added.

"We've started phoning parents about the

trip, and are looking into how we can get

compensated for money we've already spent,"

Anderson said.

Bill

Lutz, who heads up World Projects, the group

organizing the trip for Fayette County High and

Walton High in Cobb County, is in Australia now,

Anderson said, trying to hammer out details.

Approximately

220 Fayette County High School musicians had been

tooting their horns and trying to drum up some

money, to the tune of $3,600 apiece, for their

2000 trip to the Summer Olympics in Sydney,

Australia.

Fayette

County and Walton High School in Cobb County had

joined forces and set a goal of raising $1

million for the trip.

Fayette

County High's band director Kenneth Beard said

the $3,600 may have been a little inflated, but a

lot depended on how much the two band booster

clubs could have accrued to help finance the

trip. He said they had been seeking corporate

sponsorship and some major corporate donations to

defray travel costs.

While the FCHS band trip

is off, other school groups are gearing up for

major trips. Next spring, 43 members of the

school's select chorus will perform in schools

and cathedrals in England. According to the field

trip request filed with the Board of Education by

teacher Janice Folsom, the students will tour

London, Windsor, Oxford, Stratford, Canterbury,

Dover, Paris, Versailles and Chartres.

After Christmas 2000,

100 members of Sandy Creek High School's marching

band will travel to London to participate in that

city's New Year's Day Parade. The band will be

one of 16 high school and college marching bands

from the United States invited to participate.

They participated in the same event in January

1996 and Mark Elrod, Sandy Creek's band director,

participated in the parade with the Central

Carroll High School band in 1998.

"From my

experience, I can tell you it was by far the most

educational, well planned and organized band trip

of which I have ever been a part," Elrod

said. Estimated costs of the trip is $1,625 per

person.

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