One-hundred-eighty students from Oelwein High School are preparing for a big holiday trip. Oelwein’s high school band will march in the Orange Bowl parade on New Year’s Day. Band director Doug McFarlane says a big send-off’s planned for Sunday morning in the high school gym. McFarlane says being invited to the parade — and making the preparations — has been extremely exciting. McFarlane says it will cost 200-thousand dollars for the band to make the trip to Miami — money that’s been raised through donations from individuals to pizza and candy bar sales. Oelwein is the smallest of the 10 high schools invited to send a band to march in the parade.
