MHS Spectrum performs at Walt Disney World Resort

The #SingingSpoofhounds from Maryville High School have successfully completed their spring 2024 tour to the Walt Disney World resort in Orlando, FL, and have returned home with suntans, souvenirs and memories to last a lifetime.

Leaving MHS after school on May 21st, anxious energy, and luggage filled two yellow school buses bound for the Kansas City International Airport. After an uneventful flight, the first flight for many of our Spoofhounds, the MHS Spectrum Show Choir settled into their Pop Century Resort hotel rooms and waited for the real fun to begin. Over the next five days, Spectrum would visit all four Disney World Theme Parks, participate in a fantastic workshop led by Disney talent, and perform for a huge Memorial Day Weekend crowd at Disney Springs. In all, 98 #SingingSpoofhounds, chaperones and family members made the trip to the House of the Mouse, and experienced a trip thoroughly sprinkled with pixie dust and Disney magic.

Vanessa Parsons, director of Vocal Music at Maryville High School, led the group’s excursion to the Sunshine State.

“These trips are so important for our high school students. We’re not just teaching music and choreography, but life skills of communication and tolerance, how to share a small hotel room with three other people and how to get through security at an airport, how to perform when your body and mind is tired. These are things you can’t teach in the classroom,” noted Parsons, who has taken Spectrum on three previous extended performance trips.

Parsons continued “As meaningful as these trips are, it takes a significant amount of time, work, and resources to get nearly 100 people to Florida and back again. We are so, so grateful for our Maryville community for supporting these kids and helping us achieve a dream we have been working towards for nearly three years. I can’t thank our business community, parents, and other community supporters enough for making this trip a reality.”