By John L. Braese
The Enterprise
ONTARIO – Tuba players will turn into zombies. Flutists will be witches. Drum majors will die and return to life while the wind section will become creatures of the night.
Members of the Ontario High School and Middle School band will transform as they become the ghouls in the corn maze at Montgomery Farms starting Thursday.
The haunting will continue through Halloween evening starting at dark until 11 p.m.
Montgomery is donating $3 from each person entering the maze towards the band.
Money will be used to buy equipment and uniforms.
“The uniforms we have now were purchased in 1999 and some are even older than that,” said drum major Logan Lewis. “We also need new timpani and a piano.”
With 54 musicians from the two schools, they will be busy as each night’s action will require 40 to 50 actors in the maze.
Helping out the students will be the newly formed Ontario Band Boosters, a group of parents, former band students and others.
“We are working to get more interest in band throughout the Ontario schools,” said organizer Jennie Woodruff.
Woodruff is a former band member.
To increase participation, high school band members spent the last month visiting local elementary schools, talking to students and performing.