“They called me like ten times in a two-hour period. I was busy teaching. I wasn’t going to answer the phone. I didn’t even know who was calling. All I knew is my phone was going nuts,” director of bands Darren Myers said.
Myers recollects back to the week before Thanksgiving when he was approached with an activity for his band. Continuing with the confrontation of this request,
“I came in here and looked, pulled up the backlog on the phone, and it said Panda Express. Then about, I’d say, ten minutes before the end of the block when it all went down, I got this email from them. And then that’s how it came about.”
Being invited to play for a restaurant opening was not a common request to Myers, but, with consideration of this offer having only benefits, he quickly accepted and got the band on their way for the grand opening.
Many of the band members were quickly on board for this quite silly exit out of the first block. And when Nov. 20 hit, they loaded up into their buses and drove down to La-Vista. The band was met with a line outside the Panda Express when they arrived and the vast amount of staff for the first day scattered around the property. Lined up in the chilling morning weather, commenced their short three songs, losing some music to the wind in the process. They watched as the owner gave his speech to the crowd and finally cut the ribbon to celebrate the grand opening.
Expecting no further activities to be needed the band was allowed to go in and purchase food from the newly opened restaurant. Musicians sprinted back to the buses to set their instruments back in their seats and get to be first in line. Filling the store with a flood of roughly 80-90 high schoolers, some band members went to socialize and others began to buy their own meals. But soon word from the business spread that every meal for the band would be without cost, not even to the directors or school. As the band sat and dug into their food, the staff accommodated everything, and even handed out free t-shirts as part of their fundraiser for the opening, offering free t-shirts for the first 88 customers. While the band members also took a quick liking to Mei Mei, the panda mascot parading the building.
With their stomach’s full and a huge smile on every band kid’s face, they departed from the location around 10:30 arriving back at school by the end of the second block. The trip was a memorable and unique experience for all groups involved. Myers’ full opinions on the trip were that “it was a good experience for us, cause not only did we get some money for the program, but we also got to feed [everyone], which was totally cool, [and] we weren’t charged for [it], which is even better. And to be honest with you, that is great for community outreach. And that’s a big thing with us, you know, even as a school and trying to connect with our community, we need to do more things like that. Because that was a big deal. They loved it.”
Myers was confident to state he would definitely work with any of the Panda Express locations or officials in the future without a doubt.
If you are interested in visiting, the location is at 12448 Southport Parkway in La Vista’s Southport West area.
