I needed to write to let you know how happy you have made so many in this community when you put “South Kitsap High School’s award-winning band on the front page of the Oct. 4 Independent.

I could almost hear a collective cheer across Port Orchard.

In the heat of summer, these young people choose to come back to school where they work impressively hard.

There they practice not only the music for that year but also coordinating a visual “field show” of marching precision.

In the fall and winter, they are out in wind, rain and sometimes snow attempting to keep the crowd enthusiastic for the football team, win or loose. Spring brings parades, some more than five miles long, in whatever weather nature gives us.

These musicians perform their best, rain or shine, scorching hot or freezing cold.

There isn’t anything they wouldn’t do for their director, Mr. Grams, and I know he feels the same towards all of them.

There are more than 130 students in the band. All these young people have parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts and all of them are going to want a copy of this issue.

Although my student was ill that game and not in the photo, they’re all our kids and seeing so many of these dedicated young faces made my day.

Anna Whitten | Port Orchard