
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 18, 1992                   TAG: 9203180267
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: MICHELLE RILEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

JAUNT ACROSS EUROPE IS MUSIC TO HIS EARS

Some high school students will spend their summer vacations strolling down the walkways of the local mall. Others will be stuck in their tracks at a part-time job.

Greg Carroll will be marching around Europe.

Carroll, a junior at Staunton River High School in Moneta, is one of at least 12 Virginia high school students who have been accepted in the 1992 Spirit of America honor marching band.

The band, now in its 15th season, was set up by George Naff, director, to promote a positive image of American young people in Europe.

"These are the very best of what we have to offer," Naff said. "Believe me, I don't want to be out there with 150 kids who aren't well-behaved."

Carroll, a baritone player, has been marching since he was in eighth grade. He kept playing this marching season even though he couldn't take the school's band class.

Because the 16-year-old was in a vocational class on electricity that ran during the band class, he went only to the after-school practices. And he practiced an extra hour each night to keep up with the rest of the players.

His work paid off when he was chosen for Bedford County's All-County Band of 1991.

Carroll said he applied to the program because he wanted "to be able to make new friends and see how other people march."

Carroll and the other band members will spend the first five days of the program at West Georgia College in Carrollton, Ga. There they will practice a "program similar to a halftime show" said Naff, a former conductor at Duke University.

Then they will go to Luxembourg, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany and Belgium.

Most of the performances will be in the town squares of cities that the program has visited before, Naff said. The high point of the trip will be on July 4, when the band will play for a party sponsored by the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.

Carroll still is looking for people who want to sponsor his $2,795 trip tuition, which is due by May 15. Anyone interested may call him at (703) 890-1502.

by CNB