This past Saturday, West’s drum line participated in a competition including eight other drum line programs from local schools.

The first annual fundraising contest hosted by Olathe Northwest, was held at Olathe East. The contest was set up to help out Olathe Northwest’s band director, Rosa Adams-Bussard, who suffered a serious fall last year resulting in a spinal injury. 100% of all admission fees from the drumlines went directly to Adams to help pay for physical therapy and other medical needs while on the way to recovery from the injury. In another way to help out Adams, all of the judges were volunteers.

Saturday afternoon, the drum line met up at West, headed out around 12:30 and returned back to school around 5:20. The day consisted of playing through show music and watching other people compete.

“The most fun part about being in the contest was getting to see other bands,” said junior Preston Thomas.

West placed second out of three in their division and tied for third overall out of eight.

Noteable comments made by the judges to West included how they “think outside the box”, “play with great musicaltity”, and how they “show great control and technique.”

The drum line will contine their success Tuesday, October 1st at the Shawnee Mission Marching Festival.