Earlier this year, East Juniata broke its ties with Midd-West, regarding the high school football team. Since EJ didn’t have enough people to uphold their own team, the district made a decision to combine EJ and Juniata for the 2019 fall season. This gave both schools a chance to be a part of something greater and unite as a school district. As for East Juniata, we were given an abundance of opportunities. Our school was given the chance to be a part of a bigger band and to join with a football team that is in our district.

When the idea was first presented to the students, the band students were given the opportunity to join the silk squad or the majorettes. The band started meeting in the early days of June. It took a lot of effort on both Mr. Milliken and Mr. Eargle’s part to bring around one hundred kids together. For the first few practices, the band was certainly separated by schools. However, as practices went along, we went from being two separate bands to one.

The band is approaching the last football game of the season. This football season has helped both schools come together to participate in something that they both love. The combination of the schools has opened up many opportunities and friendships between them.