While many students mourn what may be the loss of high school milestones like prom and graduation due to COVID-19, some band students are taking matters into their own hands.

The De Soto High School band and choir had planned a trip to Orlando, Florida, over spring break. Like many other school events, this was also cancelled. However, for people like sophomore Emily Bell, nothing changed at all.

“My mom heard about it first because they were going to leave for their flight that morning,” Bell said. “After the trip was cancelled, she texted me and asked if I still wanted to go. I said ‘yes,’ so they picked me up after third block that day and we drove there.”

Bell was disappointed that she couldn’t go to Universal Studios or Disney World with the band as a whole, but luckily she got to see band friends in Florida, too.

“The Hilemans were there, and then I saw Tom Kuhn and [senior] T.J. Taylor,” Bell said.

Two other DHS band students also went on a trip with friends. Seniors Lauren Mallicoat and Matthew Lingner decided to round up a few buddies and head to Mallicoat’s family cabin in Iowa for a few days.

“I went with [seniors] Morgan Laney, Jack Loomis and Lauren Mallicoat in Lauren’s uncle’s cabin,” Lingner said. “I think all of us agreed that we had more fun there than we think we would have in Florida.”

Mallicoat agrees, adding that the trip was enjoyable.

“After the Orlando trip was cancelled, we all still really wanted to go on a trip. Because of the fact that we probably won’t get our money back, we went up to the cabin. We went bird watching and watched scary movies like Friday the 13th,” Mallicoat said.

Overall, Bell, Lingner and Mallicoat were all satisfied with the decision to take the cancelled trip into their own hands.

“I think it was the first time we actually got to be teenagers. We made mac and cheese and chicken nuggets and chased each other with towels,” Mallicoat said.

“It was a lot of fun, we all wish we could go back,” Lingner said.