Lesa Jarding

You can go anywhere from here. Sound familiar? Those are the words President Peggy Miller used to announce that the Pride of the Dakotas has been invited back to perform in the 2008 Tournament of Roses Parade is Pasadena.

“To the best of our knowledge, we are the first collegiate band whose team is not playing in the game, invited back for a second performance in the parade,” said director Jim McKinney.

Their first appearance was in 2003.

McKinney received the invitation three weeks ago after submitting an application prior to the May 1, 2006 deadline.

“It was a long time to wait,” said McKinney. “We wanted to announce the invitation at just the right time and thought it would be great to for President Miller to announce at the indoor concert.”

Junior Amy Barton was surprised by the announcement.

“Since high school I knew I wanted to be in a collegiate marching band. I watched the Rose Bowl Parade when I was little and dreamed of going,” said Barton. “I never thought it would happen, but now it has, I’m really excited about next year.”

Now the Pride is busy making plans for their appearance in 2008.

“We were really happy with how everything was organized for our first trip,” said McKinney. “We have a blueprint to follow when making arrangements for 2008.”

And despite the announcement just being made on Saturday, some reservations are already completed.

“We have already reserved the same hotel, along with the Queen Mary for our New Year’s Day celebration. We will perform once again at Disneyland,” said McKinney. “Our itinerary will be very similar to 2003 because it was so successful.”

Adult travelers are also expressing interest in going along to support the Pride.

“In 2003, we took roughly 300 adults with us,” said McKinney. “We hope that we meet or even exceed that number in 2008. The Alumni Association does a great job of organizing all of that for us.”

While plans are underway for the trip west, McKinney hopes the invitation and trips help SDSU.

“The first trip really increased our numbers, hopefully the second will help even more,” said McKinney. “Hopefully this opportunity will help students decide that SDSU is where they want to be.”