BUENA VISTA, Va. – As high school football kicks off Friday night, so does another season of traditions.
At Parry McCluer High School, the band is marking a first after its equipment bus caught fire last year.
This season, members will load instruments and more onto a shiny new blue trailer.
Students set up a GoFundMe account to raise money for the trailer after their bus, Big Blue, caught fire last year.
Band director Shannon Light said the students saw it for the first time this summer at band camp.
"This is our new tradition and we're really excited about it. Everything fits perfectly inside of it and there's plenty of room as the band grows for us to fit all of our equipment, so it's wonderful," said Light.
"We saw it pull up, we were like, 'yay, it's here.' So we all ran up to it and went inside and it was really fun. We took a picture with it," said drum major Ryan Armstrong.
Big Blue served as the equipment bus for the last 42 years, Light said the new trailer has plenty of room for growth.