Local Boys and Girls Club music program brings home top prize

For many of the students in the IMPACT Percussion music group at the Kennewick Boys and Girls Club program, it was their first time taking part in a music competition.

The group of 33 musicians traveled to Dayton, Ohio last week for the national Winter Guard International Percussion World Championships.

It was the first time that the group had performed together on a national stage, but they didn't let that stop them from bringing home three gold medals.

The group is made up of mostly high school students from a variety of schools in the Tri-Cities, along with one middle school student and a few college students.

The team arrived in Ohio on Tuesday, with a preliminary performance on Thursday. The team took first place in that event, competing against 26 other groups.

The top 20 groups moved on to semi-finals on Friday morning, with the Kennewick team taking the top spot in that event.

"The top 16 groups from the semi-final competition then went to finals, which was Friday night," said Josh Peterson, IMPACT Percussion Director. "We scored first place in that competition. That was kind of the final, the last competition of the year, so the winner of that, which was us, was named the World Champion."

Peterson says the Kennewick team was the only one representing Washington.

"It was just exciting for us to go to Dayton and to go to the competition. All of our other competitions have been in the northwest, so we usually travel to the Portland area to compete. Going to the competition was the exciting part," Peterson said. "To win it all-- very exciting. The kids are just super pumped about it."

The team returned back home Sunday night. Peterson says they'll start working on their music for next year in a few months.