The start of the band season this year brought a huge surprise for the band director John Wilson. The Band trailer was renamed “Shirley” on September 24 2015 after John Wilson’s mother.

The idea of renaming the trailer after Shirley was surprise for John Wilson.

“Well, yeah, we were, kinda, joking about it. You know, to put name Shirley inside the trailer, but I had no idea. The boosters totally surprised me by putting it outside. Yeah, we were joking, but now it is officially called “Shirley”. It is pretty cool,” said John Wilson.

Shirley passed away on August 31, because of pancreatic cancer.  She was special lady that did a lot of good things in life. She raised six children; took care of Wilson’s elder brother that was mainly handicapped for the whole life; donated to Ray-Pec High School, etc.

“Great lady! Never talked bad about anybody. She is the only person I’ve been around her and no one’s never hurt her. She never said a swear word and never cost a day in life that anybody can do just kind and patient,” said John.

Shirley had the the best last weeks in her life, living with her family in daughter’s house.

“Back in April she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and doctors did not give her very long to live. I tried to get there every week, I took her out and we went out to eat somewhere. We went to Wal-Mart, we went to the Baskin-Robbins. So it was really special. She had great three months, and, you know, you would never know if anything was wrong with her,” said Wilson.

John Wilson is very proud and grateful that “Shirley” is official name of the trailer right now.

“It is cool to hear that her legacy gets to live on through the naming the trailer,” said Wilson.

Besides outside changing, a lot of changed inside of the trailer. It is became easier and safer to loud musical equipment for competitions and performances. It was community effort to make Band’s life more comfortable and happier. A lot of people helped physically or by donations in order to built it.