The special projects and history committees that created the centennial book. (From left to right_ Polk Chandler, Andy Barnes, Jeff Fleming, Calvin Sneed, Frances Cottrell Claytor, Gail Campbell, John Campbell, Peter Lodal, Susan Lodal and Jed Garvey.
KINGSPORT — Several Kingsport community members worked together over the past year on a special project.
While they have differences in background, careers and age, they all have a common connection: the Dobyns-Bennett High School band. Whether band alum, band parents, band staff or simply supporters, these individuals came together to create a book remembering 100 years of the D-B band.
Susan Lodal was one member of the special projects committee tasked with writing the centennial book. She previously helped write a children’s book marking 50 years of Bays Mountain Park and Planetarium. Other committee members included her husband Peter Lodal, Color Guard Director Jed Garvey, photographer Polk Chandler, Jeff Fleming, Andy Barnes and Douglass High School Alumni Association representative Calvin Sneed.
The special projects committee joined forces with a history committee to put the book together. Lodal and her team knew that there was extensive research to be done on the band’s history, as well as pictures to be found. Gail Campbell, her husband John Campbell, and her sister Frances Cottrell Claytor spearheaded the archival tasks.
Using old Times News articles, passed down knowledge and tens of thousands of photographs, the committee pieced together the band’s history.
The book is organized in several chapters. The first chapter is a timeline through the first nine band directors, showing the history and growth of the band. The committee was able to obtain stories and pictures from several past directors’ children.
Chapter two tells the story of Douglass High School’s band and the merging of the two bands and student bodies when the schools integrated.
The third chapter dives into the current era of the band under Director Lafe Cook.
The book also has a chapter on groups within the band, such as drum majors, majorettes, color guard, winter guard and the drum line. There are also sections on the Band Boosters and concert band.
The book ends with recognitions — containing every award the band has accumulated over the years — and a multitude of pictures of band students at different trips and performances, from Disneyland to Kingsport’s own downtown Christmas parade.
Documenting 100 years of local history and tradition was important to Lodal as a former band parent. She and her husband had three children in the band and were involved through every step.
“I saw the importance of the community support, the respect for the band program in Kingsport and how it is just such as important part,” she said.
Lodal said she wanted to tell the story of the students, parents, instructors and community that supported the band for a century.
“It’s just a very positive story,” she said.
Although the deadline to preorder the book is Nov. 5, books will continue to be sold while supplies last, including at the band’s holiday concert on Dec. 15.
Funds raised from book sales will partially support student travel to New York for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, as well as other band needs such as fees, instrument repairs, adjunct instructors and travel.
The book can be purchased here
