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NOVINGER, MISSOURI -- Typically it’s not polite to “toot your own horn,” but for the Novinger 7^th – 12^th grade band, we say, “Go ahead!”

The 60 student group was asked to march in the 38^th annual Kansas City St. Patrick’s Day Parade, one of the largest St. Patrick’s Day parades in the nation.

“We are the first band ever from Northeast Missouri to march in it and we're just really excited about it,” said Dustijn Hollon, Director of Bands at Adair County R-I Schools. “They had been following our organization for awhile now. We received a letter early last year, expressing interest about us coming down to march in the parade.”

Hollon said the news “spread like wildfire” throughout the community, and everyone is extremely excited about the honor.

So, how have they been preparing?

“Really, it's just been business as usual,” Hollon said. “We work really hard everyday, we march out on our streets, [and] we’ve got really good senior leadership as well as underclassmen, so we feel that we're really prepared already.”

This year’s event is StarWars themed, and Novinger will play ‘The Imperial March,’ Darth Vader’s theme song. It begins at 11 a.m., March 17, on Broadway Street in Kansas City, just South of Crown Center.