Henryville band performs at Homestead, thanks school for donations

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Henryville's high school marching band traveled nearly the length of Indiana Saturday, to thank a band for its help after a tornado ripped through its town.  In March, a tornado nearly destroyed the town's high school, causing many students to finish the school year in a warehouse.

The band left Henryville around 3:30 Saturday morning.  It traveled 215 miles for an 11:05 a.m. performance at Homestead High School.

Homestead High School's band director, Steve Barber, called the school after the storm.  "We just wanted to do something to help them out," Barber said Saturday.  Barber, taught at Henryville for 10 years, where he was also the school's band director.

"He called me, and I said I needed instruments and a trailer for my winter percussion to finish their season," Shanna Ledbetter, Henryville's band director, said.

The Fort Wayne community donated items such as school supplies, non-perishable food, toiletries, tools, new blankets, and coats.

"They brought checks for the school, and for the band, and tractor-trailers full of equipment and school supplies for the whole system," Ledbetter said.

Ledbetter said her students would not have been able to finish their winter percussion season if it was not for the donation.

According to Barber, the school invited every Indiana high school marching band to its annual band competition.  Henryville easily traveled the furthest distance to compete.

"It's a way of saying thank you to all these people who for so many weeks were concerned about what we needed," Ledbetter said.

Henryville's performance this fall is called "The New Normal."  The show incorporates the day the tornado hit the town, March 2, and how the school and town worked to fix the damage, leading to the start of the 2012-2013 school year.

"[The show] depicts our journey," Ledbetter said.  "From when the tornado hit, until August 7 when we were back in our school."

Students have seen how the town has rebuilt, and said things are getting back to the way they were before.

"Life in town is actually getting back to normal," Rachael Dixon, a senior at Henryville, said.  "The restaurant that had the bus thrown into it is up and running.  They renamed it The Bus Stop.  We're getting the pizza place back.  Everything is coming back together."