By Laura Wilcox
Tribune-Review (Pennsylvania)
Copyright 2006 Tribune Review Publishing Company
All Rights Reserved
Pennsylvania’s oldest volunteer fire department band isn’t getting any younger.
So Larry Keslar can use some young musicians’ help to keep the tradition going.
Keslar, 50, is the band director and president of the Mt. Pleasant Volunteer Fireman’s Marching Band, a 71-year-old organization that performs at parades and festivals. Its current 18 members range in age from 17 to 80. Most juggle day jobs and other activities and can’t make every performance.
Keslar said the band has declined to participate in some events in recent years because there weren’t enough members to march. He said the group often marches with a maximum of 10 musicians but has performed with as few as five. Sometimes Keslar fills in on percussion.
Many of the passionate musicians Keslar came to know over the 30 years since he joined the group have passed away or are physically unable to march.
He wants the marching band tradition to continue, but recruitment isn’t easy. He said busy lifestyles keep people from joining the band, and because young people are “preoccupied with other things.” The band’s last five members have come from outside Mt. Pleasant, he said.
“There’s so many other activities which can be done. People have to choose between one and the other and, unfortunately, I think the fire department band is not one of their priorities,” he said.
The band hopes to celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2010.
“I want to keep this organization alive,” Keslar said. “It’s been part of the Mt. Pleasant tradition for so many years. I’d hate to see it fall by the wayside.”
Keslar said the band was down to its bare bones in the ‘80s but was bolstered by a slight resurgence in the following years. The numbers have begun to drop again.
The Kittanning Firemen’s Band, another group of volunteer musicians in Western Pennsylvania, also has experienced a fluctuating membership. Trumpet player Mike Daugherty, 43, said the key is to capture young people’s interest.
Kittanning’s roster currently consists of 65 names, but 30 musicians usually march in parades. Members range from teenagers to 80-somethings, and they come from all walks of life.
Daugherty has spent 22 years with the band. He said as many as 20 longtime members keep it going, but the group continually makes efforts to recruit. The band invites young people to watch them practice and sometimes adds refreshments to the mix. He said the band keeps things interesting by playing five or six tunes in one parade -- unlike the one or two tunes prepared by many high school bands.
Daugherty agreed that volunteer bands often compete with other activities for young people’s time.
“It’s tough to get them interested. Once they try it, they’ll see how fun it is.”
Daugherty said keeping the bands active contributes “a sense of community pride.”
In a letter to the editor, Keslar pleaded to keep the Mt. Pleasant band alive.
“Unless membership increases in the near future, there may no longer be a Mt. Pleasant Volunteer Fireman’s Marching Band. It will go the way of Candyland, the trolley cars, and 50-cent-a-gallon gasoline,” he said.