Senior Lexi Schnelker has experience with being a “Disney Dad.”

As a member of the FHC Marching Band, she was given the opportunity to tap into her cargo short side during the band’s spirit week at their summer camp. While others interpreted the prompt of ‘Disney Day’ as an opportunity to become their favorite Disney characters, Lexi took it to another level. 

“One of my best friends and I went to Goodwill, and we got cargo shorts and chunky sneakers with tall socks and hats that said ‘Dad’ with Mickey Mouse on them,” Lexi said. “We [also got] button down Disney Hawaiian shirts. Stuff like that is always fun.”

Band camp’s spirit week is only a fraction of the opportunities that band has provided to Lexi, and only one of many experiences she has shared with her best friend. Together, they have also been able to take on leadership roles within the stands. 

Lexi’s many years of experience and knowledge have allowed her to excel as a leader; she has played piano for roughly fourteen years, and just recently began to learn to play a new instrument—the piccolo, all of this on top of being a gifted flutist. These qualifications have made her a perfect candidate to assist in leading her section. 

In her junior year, Lexi was able to be a ‘squad leader’—guiding a smaller group of her peers to be as successful as possible; however, this year, Lexi became a ‘section leader,’ this allowing her to take on even more responsibility within the band. 

“I was a co-section leader with my friend,” Lexi said. “As a section leader, you are there to help with marching skills, playing skills, and uniting your section; [I also] help my section interact with other sections and [am] there as a mentor to the other people in the band.” 

Although being a section leader is fulfilling due to her ability to impact others in a more hands-on manner, Lexi is grateful for how the opportunity has helped her even outside the parameters of band. This activity has gone way past keeping her skills sharp and technique on point, for it has also pushed her confidence to a higher level.

“Being on leadership has really helped me to step out of my shell a little bit and be more assertive,” Lexi said. “[I also] get to share my knowledge and experience and become a better leader overall. That’s been really helpful.”

Clearly, Lexi has many reasons to be grateful for the opportunity she was given. However, she feels the most fortunate to be able to continue, while also learning from the legacy that her predecessors left behind. 

“I think I got really lucky that my flute section leaders for my first three years of band were really good at what they did,” Lexi said. “I used them as an example for my own leadership and took something from each one of them, whether it was marching skills, playing skills, tips they taught me, or how they interacted with the section as a whole. They were really influential.”

Although high school band has had an incredible influence on Lexi’s life, music has always played a huge role in how she’s grown up. Playing piano since she was four, she has been constantly surrounded by the prospect of creativity and art. 

Lexi is consistently gifted with the opportunity to expand her craft in new ways, just last year she took up a new instrument, the piccolo, to benefit the greater aspect of the ensemble. This is just one example of the adaptiveness that music has allowed her to master.

“I love playing in band,” Lexi said. “It’s something I’ve always really enjoyed. I like having music in my life in some way, and [band] is a great way to get to know people and to [create] a community that you can fall back on. I’ve met all of my closest friends in band.”