Pennsylvania Lions All-State Band
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Happy Fourth of July!

7/9/2018

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Once again, guest blogger Andrew Smouse on the last day of our fantabulous trip to Las Vegas!

Independence Day began early for the band with another exceptional breakfast at the hotel. After getting our fill of food and coffee, we filled our hydration packs and loaded the buses for the twenty minute ride to Summerlin for the Patriotic Parade. Waiting to step off on the parade route, we were entertained by the Las Vegas Avengers who were in the parade behind us. The parade was a little more than a mile and packed with thousands of people, making the parade fun to march while playing the Pennsylvania Polka!
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Loading the coaches, we set out for Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area where we toured the visitor’s center and drove along the 13-miles road through the canyon, stopping for a group photo overlooking the canyon. On the way back to the hotel, we ate lunch at the popular In-N-Out Burger fast food restaurant were we enjoyed hamburgers, fresh cut fries, and milkshakes before heading back to the hotel for some relaxation and pool time.
 After freshening up, we departed for the Excalibur hotel for dinner at Buca di Beppo. Our family style meal of salad, pasta, chicken, and cheesecake concluded with a mini dance party before we transferred to the Bellagio hotel to see the conservatory. After a brief wait, we watched the world famous fountains as they performed to Pink Panther by Henry Mancini. Needless to say, this was a great way to send the night. As we arrived at the hotel, we had a few minutes to relax and begin packing our suitcases for the long day of travel back to Pennsylvania tomorrow.
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What's Vegas Without Dinner And A Show?

7/4/2018

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Dr. McCutcheon and I headed back to Gettysburg early Tuesday morning so that he could conduct the July 4th Orchestra here at Gettysburg College. For our final few blog posts, please welcome Guest Blogger Andrew Smouse, one of our band staff members.,
After another hot breakfast in the hotel prepared by Chef Kevin, we loaded the buses for our fourth performance at the Adventure Dome in Circus Circus. After our wonderful performance and Facebook live stream of the concert and jazz bands, we all enjoyed a private pizza party. Following the party, we enjoyed the rides and theatrics of Adventuredome. We even had a laser tag competition between the staff and students… guess who won! After the thrilling rides, we loaded the coaches for a short drive to Caesar’s Palace. In the world famous Forum Shops, we dined among memorabilia of movie stars in Planet Hollywood. 
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Finishing our meal with fresh chocolate chip cookies, we took a short walk to the Linq hotel. Headliner magician Mat Franco, winner of season nine’s America Got Talent, entertained us with a classic, comedic Las Vegas show. We were in awe at the illusions, card tricks, and his story. It was a great way to end the day! We then boarded the buses to head back to our hotel, taking in the lights and sights of the Las Vegas Strip. We look forward to our final performance tomorrow in the time honored Las Vegas Independence Day  tradition – the 24th annual Summerlin Patriotic Parade.
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And Now For Something Different...

7/4/2018

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After a few days of high paced Vegas and crowded casinos, we escaped to see of the other wonders in the vicinity of Las Vegas: The Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. At the Hoover Dam, we played a brief concert outside the visitor's center. It was well received, and there were Lions even that far outside of Las Vegas!
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Following out brief concert, we were treated to a fabulous tour of the Hoover Dam. First, we viewed a video about the history of the dam, then we saw the power plant beneath the dam, and finally, we ascended to the top of the dam for pictures of the dam and Lake Meade. It was a great "Dam" tour!
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After the tour, we were back on the buses and off to the Grand Canyon!  This was truly amazing. Students had the chance to go out of the Sky Walk, a glass floor over the top of the canyon, allowing them to look straight down.  I did not go (I was too chicken), but many of our students enjoyed the amazing view! There was also, once again, a shop or two on our way out. Then, back on the buses to Las Vegas, where we had dinner at the Rainforest Café among the jungle and its animals!
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From Paris to Rome

7/4/2018

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We started the day with the Plenary Session at the Lions Convention and the flag ceremony. Our band (in addition to other groups) carried flags for the flag ceremony, each representing a county that has Lions.  The flag ceremony (which was quite impressive!) happens at the end of the plenary session, so I got the chance to watch the end of that session. I was particularly struck by the winners of the Peace Poster and Essay contest - ZhuoQi Wang, a 13 year old from China and winner of the Peace Poster contest, spoke at the conference - she was quite impressive. Check out her winning poster, "The Future of Peace." The session was also the "kick off" for the new Lions campaign against diabetes, and we were excited to see Sanjay Gupta speak about diabetes. We did not get to go (we were off seeing the Hoover Dam by that time!), but Monday's plenary session was to feature former president George W. Bush. Our kids, of course, did an awesome job at flag holding and parading. 
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 After the conclusion of the flag ceremony, we had lunch once again in the food court of the MGM Grand (lots of great options there!) and then headed to Paris to visit the Eiffel Tower!  Yes, you read that correctly - the Eiffel Tower - in the Paris Casino, of course. We wound our way through a quaint French village and eventually reached the Eiffel Tower, clearly the height of the day. Students enjoyed ascending the tower to, once again, gaze out over Las Vegas. We were even treated to a show by the famed Bellagio fountains while up top.
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Following our trip to France, we walked across the street to pay a visit to Caesar's Palace. Here, students had a chance to shop in the Forum Shops and seemed to have a great time shopping (I have concluded that our students really like to shop!) We then had a fabulous dinner at Planet Hollywood's Café Hollywood, and then were back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.
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The Lions International Convention

7/1/2018

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Today was a busy and intense day of Lions activities. Our two most important performances - the Lions International Parade and the performance for the Pennsylvania delegation were both today, making it a BUSY day. The day started off with the parade. As you can imagine, it is HOT and SUNNY in Las Vegas (although with little humidity, thankfully!), so we were very concerned that students stay hydrated. To that end, the band provided students with hydration packs that they wore during the parade. There were some small kinks in the hydration pack system, resulting in a number of water covered breakfast tables as we worked to fix various leaking issues, but we got it all worked out and all stayed well hydrated!

As always, the Parade was an awesome demonstration of the breadth of the Lions organization - delegations marched in the parade from across the globe, from India, to Paraguay, to Norway. As always, the crowd was an international one as well, with peoples from many different cultures cheering us on as played the Pennsylvania Polka. The parade is also a great place for people watching, as delegations and spectators are dressed in distinctive garb  to represent their clubs. We were marching behind Paraguay; the women there had very cool dresses which many people wanted pictures of. (Personally, I wanted to know where to by one!)
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Following the parade, we had a chance to return to our hotel, shower, and change - a welcome chance, given that we had just spent an hour marching in the hundred degree heat! We enjoyed box lunches from the Earl of Sandwich, and had enough time that many students hit the hotel pool for a dip. After a bit of a break, we headed back out to the Stratosphere, the tallest freestanding tower in America. Going to the top took us even higher than the High Roller from the other day. The views were awesome, and some of us enjoyed the great view with a cold beverage. There were also rides for the daring and brave among us, who were able to jump off the tower and ride a rollercoaster hundreds of feet above the Las Vegas streets! (This was too daring for me, Dr. McCutcheon and I had glasses of water and read a book while enjoying the view.) After students had their fill of excitement, we headed back down to the ground to enjoy the buffet at the Stratosphere for dinner.  There was a great array of options, from sushi to spare ribs to a beef carving station and a make your own taco bar. It seemed that everyone found something to eat!

This evening we were back at the MGM Grand for the Pennsylvania delegation's reception. We enjoyed playing for delegation, who much appreciated our contribution to the evening. Many thanks to Lion Jamie Cope for guest conducting the band. We were able to go live on Facebook this morning and again this evening during the delegation performance. We are gratified that so many of you watched, shared, and commented on the videos - if you haven't seen them, check them out on our Facebook page! It was, as the delegation performance always is, a late night - we were all glad to climb into our beds upon our return to the hotel.
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    Author

    Bonnie McCutcheon is the wife of Dr. Russell McCutcheon, Musical Director of the Lions PA All-State Band. She teaches history at Wilson College in Chambersburg PA, is an active member of the Gettysburg Lions Club, and volunteers with the Girl Scouts.

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The Pennsylvania Lions All-State Band is sponsored by Lions Clubs of Pennsylvania.  We Serve!
Pennsylvania State Council of Lions Clubs
949 East Park Drive
Harrisburg, PA 17111-2810
Phone:  717.564.2586  |  FAX:  717.564.2880
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