Band director receives key to Corpus Christi

In over twenty years of visiting Port Royal, head band director David Gresens believes he may have experienced his most memorable. As over 200 students huddled in a small studio were a party was being thrown, it was announced that Gresens was receiving the key to the city.

“The whole band cheered for him and I felt really proud to call him my band director,” Betts said.

Even Gresens himself was shocked, unprepared for the moment.

“We were all in Schlitterbahn and the mayor came in, and I didn’t know the mayor was coming,” Gresens said. “He asked me to come up to receive the key to the city. It was really cool. We had over 200 people in there hooting and hollering.”

As the band embarked on its annual trip to Port Royal in Corpus Christi, this trip was anything but average. In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, Port Royal has been rebuilding for the past seven months and is still working on different parts of the hotel. The band became the first visitors to stay at Port Royal since Harvey hit the resort. Even though not all the rooms were completely rebuilt, Port Royal did the best they could to be accommodating to the students.

“The rooms weren’t exactly perfect-there was still dry wall dust on the floor and other water and electrical issues in some rooms, but they did the best they could to make sure our time there was great,” junior Brian Tamayo said.

Luckily, the main attraction of Port Royal, it’s pool and the beach were in good condition.

“The pool area was in excellent condition and there were no problems there,” senior Danielle Betts said.

The major theme from the students was how accommodating Port Royal and its staff were. Klein and Port Royal have a long history of organizations visiting, with many memories being made, and its clear Port Royal understands that. After arriving at their rooms, many of which had problems, the group had to perform at UIL competition, which fortunately, went without a hitch.

“All four of the groups that were down there got first division ratings,” band director David Gresens said.

The first division rating is the highest award a band can receive at competition. Although the competition went well, problems were not finished at Port Royal. On Saturday, the weather became too cold to be in the water, but Port Royal came in to save the day.

“When the weather got too cold they even rented out a little studio at Schlitterbahn which was close to us and we threw a party in there,” Tamayo said.

Unlikely circumstances and surprises combined to make for perhaps the most memorable trip the band has made to Corpus to date.

“It was honestly the best Corpus trip I had, even if not everything was perfect,” Tamayo said.