Spectrum performs at Disney

SUBMITTED BY VANESSA PARSONS
Maryville High School Singing Spoofhounds, friends, family and chaperones are shown at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

MARYVILLE, Mo. — The Maryville High School Singing Spoofhounds have returned from completing their spring tour to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

According to a news release, the group left town on May 21, anxious and luggage-laden on the way to the Kansas City International airport.

Following an uneventful flight — the first flight for many of the Spoofhounds — the MHS Spectrum choir settled into its Pop Century Resort hotel rooms and prepared for the real work.

“These trips are so important for our high school students,” Vanessa Parsons, MHS vocal music director, said in a statement. “We’re not just teaching music and choreography, but life skills of communication and tolerance, how to share a small hotel room with three other people and how to get through security at an airport, how to perform when your body and mind is tired. These are things you can’t teach in the classroom.”

Over the next five days, Spectrum visited all four Disney World theme parks, participated in a workshop led by Disney talent and performed for a huge Memorial Day weekend crowd at Disney Springs. In all, 98 singers, chaperones and family members made the trip to the “House of the Mouse” this year. Parsons has taken Spectrum on three previous extended performance trips.

“As meaningful as these trips are, it takes a significant amount of time, work, and resources to get nearly 100 people to Florida and back again,” she said. “We are so, so grateful for our Maryville community for supporting these kids and helping us achieve a dream we have been working towards for nearly three years. I can’t thank our business community, parents, and other community supporters enough for making this trip a reality.”