DETROIT LAKES — The Detroit Lakes High School band and choir are asking for community help after a trip to a national competition became a financial challenge.
Seventy-four students and staff were stranded in Orlando following the WorldStrides Performance Festival when snowy conditions in Minnesota pushed their next available flight to Thursday, March 19. They were left without a hotel and no way to get home.
Band Director Tim Siewert said the cost of the extra hotel night and arranging buses back home will add about $30,000 to the group’s expenses.
“With this change, you know, the kids have been really great. They’ve been very understanding and flexible and patient. So given those circumstances, everybody’s doing really well, and the kids are troopers and handling it as best as they can,” Siewert said.
Siewert said the students are still making memories despite the delays. The choir took home gold and the band took silver in the national competition.
The music program is asking community members to donate to their booster program to help cover the unexpected costs.
You can help them get home here:
https://www.lakermusicboosters.org/
Ryan McNamara joined WDAY as a reporter in late 2024. He is a native of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota and graduated from St. Cloud State University in 2024.
His time as a Husky included copious amounts of time spent at “The Herb” reporting on Husky hockey, or at Halenbeck Hall calling Husky basketball. He also spent two summers with the Northwoods League’s St. Cloud Rox. Along with his duties in news and sports, Ryan dons a headset for occasional play-by-play broadcasts for North Dakota and Minnesota high school sports.
When he’s away from the station, he’s most likely lifting, finding time to golf, or taking in as much college basketball as possible, in order to complete the elusive perfect March Madness bracket.