California's First All Homeschool Marching Band

In 1998, a little group of homeschoolers began rehearsing on a weekly basis at Village Bible Church (almost in secret) with an instrumentation of recorders, flutes, and Mr. Hallman’s trumpet playing. Mom's helped out with other instruments like Mrs. O, who is a violin player and volunteered to learn how to play Mr. Hallman’s spare trombone. Mrs. F kicked in with her electric bass along with her son, Sho, on the drum set. By this time Patrick had switched to flute and Katie had taken the plunge to play trumpet.

Performances of the little group were humble in nature as they played for the outpatient therapy center at St. Jude (Hospital) Continuing Rehabilitation Center, the Seal Beach Women’s Club, the Easter Seals Adult Day Care Center and some other church groups. But the group had no name, no logo, and very little publicity. The students went to lunch together after rehearsal and had such a good time, they came up with the “Let’s Do Lunch Band”.

A few years have passed, and the band has matured and added many players. A beginning band also was started for newer musicians along with the traditional music fundamentals class of recorders. In the homeschool community, the band is now recognized for its depth of abilities, service to the community, and musical versatility. Now receiving invitations to perform at major community venues such as Youth Expo, the Orange County Fair, Imagination Celebration and others, the “Let’s Do Lunch” Band, is now aptly called “Alpha Winds”, where Alpha means “highest” or “first”. The intermediate band is called the “Sound Waves” and recorded its achievement as the State of California’s very first all homeschool marching band - recently scored a 2nd place at the Lompoc Flower Festival Parade.

Future plans are to increase the level of the Charis Chamber Orchestra led by Caroly Davidson and to develop a major tour to Canada in the next year. Invitations for the Alpha Winds for its upcoming season include the Ebel Club of Anaheim, the Tustin VFW, Tustin Tiller Days, Town and Country Manor, and will host the Vanguard University Jazz Festival.