Late this March, from Saturday the 21st to Tuesday the 24th, North Harford high school’s music department, including the band, chorus, and orchestra, took a trip down to Disney World, in Florida. The music students this year at the high school have taken many trips for competitions to other high schools and even few out of state travels, but a trip by plane to stay in Disney World for a few days has certainly never been one of them.

     While band, chorus, and orchestra students in the past have taken trips down to Disney, most recently in 2019, a trip for this group of individuals is a first for sure and took planning since March of 2025 to get everything situated.. Mr. John Wojciechowski, North Harford’s band instructor, shared, “ The biggest challenge was just managing all of the logistics for such a large group. Other than that, we had a Company that helped us with managing all of the different components of the trip. The total cost of the trip to get 159 students, teachers, and chaperones, to Disney and back was approximately $315,000… These are not opportunities you can only get through these types of trips, so I do believe they are worth it.”. And Mr. Wojciechowski was not inaccurate in how worth it these large expenses, and coordination of a trip was. Many students have looked forward to this trip for weeks, if not months since they knew about it. “This will be my first time on a plane with other school people, so it’s super exciting. I do like to travel but only to certain places if I feel like I’ll have a good time. I am really happy I get to go to Disney with my friends. I feel like they’ll make the experience a lot better…” exclaimed Savannah Brinkerhoff, junior and band student at North Harford.

     While this is a first plane trip, or one of few for many, especially with friends that makes it all so exciting, the academic reason these students and staff traveled down to Disney World recently was, “to learn what it takes to be a performing artist at Walt Disney World, interact with world famous Teaching Artists, … become honorary cast members for a day, participate in their own Soundtrack Recording sessions {and} march in a parade down Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom… a once in a lifetime experience through the Disney Imagination Campus” explained Mr.Wojciechowski. These opportunities are truly what make education, especially in the music department, come to life and this could not have happened without so many delicate students and teachers most of all. “I’m a little nervous but mostly excited as I do enjoy traveling. I am looking forward to being with the band, as I do have a lot of friends there who have become a support system of sorts. There’s also the fact that I’ve never flown before but I trust Mr. Wojo and I know it’ll be just fine.” exclaimed Madeleine Newton, junior at North Harford and Co Drum Captain.

     The outstanding students, amazing staff, and teachers most of all brought this even together and made these opportunities come to life. These trips only come around every so often, so a trip like this is truly once in a lifetime for many students and North Harford’s music department  made it worth every moment and penny spent.