Paisley takes pictures of the ruined guitars in the Herbert Hoover band room.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — For Lilly Nichols, band is more than something she does in her free time. It’s where she met her friends. It’s a home of sorts.
“The band room is my home away from home,” said Nichols, the Herbert Hoover High School band’s field commander and a rising senior clarinet player. “We’re all so close. We spend so much time together.”
Noah Rohr, a senior saxophone player, has been in band since middle school. He described the group as a close-knit family.
When water rose to 7 feet deep in their school, that home was ruined. Like the rest of the school’s first floor, Herbert Hoover’s band room was destroyed. The band lost everything, from sheet music and group photos to uniforms, instruments and a trailer they’d planned to sell.
On Thursday, country music star Brad Paisley joined U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito in a walk through the still-muddy halls of the high school to see its band room and gymnasium.
Paisley has raised nearly $300,000 for flood relief…