This Web page is dedicated with our sincere appreciation to the members of the Scripps Ranch Civic Association, the communities of Scripps Ranch and Mira Mesa, the City of San Diego, the San Diego Unified School District, SDUSD Superintendent Alan Bersin, SRHS Principal Dave LeMay, many corporate and civic sponsors, and dozens of additional private supporters and friends.

Please join us as we share the following extraordinary tale of our recent student ambassadorship trip to China.

In June of 2001, the Scripps Ranch High School Band and Pageantry visited the People's Republic of China for a ten-day Cultural Exchange with two local high schools. Under the direction of Mr. Dean Hickman (Band) and Ms. Kris Hickman (Pageantry), we traveled to Beijing and Shanghai, with a breathtaking stop at the Great Wall.

In addition to enjoying thrilling exchange performances with the Beijing Children's Palace and the Min-Hang High School in Shanghai, our students, staff, and chaperones visited Tiananman Square, the Temple of Heaven, the Beijing Opera, the Forbidden City, the Ming Tombs, a Jade Factory, the Great Wall, the emperor's Summer Palace, the Chinese Acrobats, and much more.

We will long remember the awe-inspiring Great Wall, the beautiful palaces, and the lovely gardens. Perhaps the most emotional and rewarding experience for many of us was our musical exchange with the local students in both Beijing and Shanghai. Many of our adults left these schools with tears in their eyes. The Chinese musical directors and their students were obviously pleased to perform for us, and they were exceptionally talented.

They watched carefully as we presented the marching and pageantry portion of our performance. Beautiful flags guided by our Pageantry team swirled and danced in the air, complementing the lively music presented by our Band members. The concept of a marching "field show," which we typically enjoy at football halftimes, was clearly new to our Chinese audience.

The Chinese students played several songs for us in a concert setting, and you could close your eyes and imagine our own students were playing, because the music is that universal. Our students then played for them, and then we played one song together under the guidance of SRHS Band Director Dean Hickman's baton, as smoothly as if we had all rehearsed in the same room, instead of half a world apart.

One of the most memorable moments was our departure from the Min-Hang High School in Shanghai, where hundreds of students came to the windows of their classroom buildings to wave good-bye to us and clap and cheer as we boarded our buses. We were so touched by their farewell. Band Director Dean Hickman tossed an extra school shirt up to one group of students, and this led to twenty minutes of tossing and cheering as souvenir items were thrown and missed, thrown and caught.

The Chinese people whom we met on our trip were happy, amusing, and eager to please us. Our Tour Guides were eager to share their culture with us, very proud of their heritage, and also proud of the steps that China is taking to modernize and improve conditions for its citizens. In Beijing, the bid for the Olympic Games was at the forefront (not yet awarded while we were there). We saw lovely sculptures of athletes throughout the nicer shopping districts, and a stylized Olympic logo was everywhere. An enormous billboard outside of the city of Beijing showed the master plan for the Olympic Villages, and this clearly had been erected long before the winner was to be chosen.

The traffic in both Beijing and Shanghai was extremely busy. Because motorized vehicles are subject to delays and traffic jams, bicycles are a very popular mode of travel in the heart of the cities. Bicycle riders were typically in business attire and quite focused on their destinations. The food was wonderful and very healthy. A wide variety of Chinese vegetable dishes and meat dishes was available at every meal. The students were also grateful for occasional opportunities to visit a Pizza Hut or McDonald's, where both service and food were good. Our talented students were wonderful to chaperone: cooperative, enthusiastic, and helpful. If you're planning to travel long distances in hot, humid weather, this is the group of students to travel with, because they are terrific. What wonderful ambassadors they were for the San Diego community!

The SRHS Music Boosters wish to thank our directors, Dean and Kris Hickman, our talented students, our committee co-chairs, Tom Avey and Jim Masingill, and our many generous sponsors. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for all of us. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.