On March 14, the high school’s Discovery parking lot was packed with students from Samohi’s Marching Band, as they played fanfare to welcome the band’s new trailer onto campus for the first time. The brand-new trailer, built by Oklahoma-based company Clubhouse Trailers, will serve as home base during band competitions and keep intact the more than $300,000 worth of equipment involved in each trek.
“When we go to a competition, we’ve got $100,000 worth of uniforms, we’ve got marimbas, xylophones, drum sets, drum equipment, tubas … [a] lot of expensive gear on there,” said Samohi Jazz Bands Director and Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Visual and Performing Arts Coordinator Tom Whaley.
Whaley began the process of procuring a new trailer in 2022, after the band’s nearly 40-year-old unit underwent damages in the midst of a competition trip. The band’s trailer was first bought in 1997 when the apparatus was already a decade old, and had been kept alive via “handy parents” for decades. Whaley worked with district officials such as the Financial Oversight Committee, Purchasing Department and Board of Education to eventually take on the trailer at just over $200,000.
He trusted Clubhouse because the company began as a group of similarly handy marching band parents whose mission it was to help high school bands manage their equipment.
“They’re good people … we were able to work it out and get it done for the kids,” Whaley said. “So, for me, it was a very special moment to see that truck trailer come driving into the gate.”
The purchase pays dividends through solar panels on the roof providing energy, replacing gas and maintenance costs for the old trailer’s generator. The trailer also comes equipped with external and interior LED lighting so that band members can walk around at night “and not trip on things,” Whaley said.
“We used to have a generator because we had to keep the batteries charged and it was this smelly generator to heat up the food, [to] feed kids when they’re [at] a tournament,” Whaley added. “And now we have solar paneling and battery power to power everything we need for the whole day.” He also commended the solar-powered unit for matching Santa Monica’s goal of being a leading city in sustainability, saying the trailer is “totally green.”
The functionality extends to the downstairs area for larger instruments, speakers and props; as well as an upstairs for all other instrument cases and drum equipment. For mobility, stairs fold down from the side of the trailer for members to move in and out, and a hydraulic ramp extends off the back of the trailer for larger instruments that need to be wheeled.
“It’s fit so that the equipment will be safely transported and not bashing around in there and [get] damaged, and so the kids were excited,” Whaley said. “Kids and the parents didn’t believe it until they actually saw that it was really here at Samohi … now that it’s here, the kids are super excited about the marching band season in the fall … this will serve kids for another 40 years.”
Next year’s marching band season will have a lot to follow up on, as the Samohi unit under the leadership of band director Kevin McKeown took home a silver medal at the 5A level during the 2023 Southern California School Band & Orchestra Association Field Championships. Whaley called the medal “a huge honor” and another achievement for a crucial part of Samohi arts.
“It brings the music program out to the community, because many people that aren’t parents don’t hear the music because they don’t go to the concerts [unless] they’re related to some kid in the band … so the marching band is out in the community at football games, at rallies, [at] the Fourth of July parade every year … it’s really something to be proud of,” Whaley said.