Get your tissues ready.
Even amid a particularly intense college football game, Wake Forest and NC State found a way to unite in support of those impacted by Hurricane Helene.
At halftime of the two teams' 118th meeting at NC State's Carter Finley stadium, the schools' marching bands performed a moving rendition of "Amazing Grace" in the wake of the storm, which has devastated Western North Carolina, killing 115 and rendering hundreds more missing.
So far, the two bands' performance has been featured all across the national news, and even in an Oct. 7 segment of NBC News' "The Today Show."
It was a deviation from the excitement of the traditional rivalry game, in which the Demon Deacons pulled out a 34-30 comeback win to improve to 109 all time head-to-head wins against NC State's 151.
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But what most people might not know is that Saturday's performance was the two bands' very first time playing together. In fact, they didn't practice "Amazing Grace" with each other before the big game.
The idea began when a student came into one of the classes of Paul Garcia, the director of bands at NC State, on Oct. 1. She apologized to him for not being present in class, Garcia said, because she still hadn't heard from her family.
Immediately Garcia wondered if there was something the band could do, musically, for those impacted by the hurricane.
"I figured 'Amazing Grace' would be most appropriate because it was a song of hope, and we had a great rendition in our library," Garcia said.
Garcia called Tim Heath, the director of bands at Wake Forest University, and the two bands were off and running for Saturday's game.
"Dr. Garcia and I were joking a little bit on the phone," Heath said. "I was like 'Hey, do you want us to come over and rehearse?' He goes, 'Well, it's at 7:30 in the morning.' And he says, 'I trust you.'"
Although Wake Forest's Spirit of the Old Gold and Black couldn't get over to Raleigh early enough to rehearse, they were able to have a unifying lunch with the band members at NC State, which laid the groundwork for a special performance.
"We prepped the students for how it would work," Garcia said. "But the students were of one mind and one source of music in that moment."
Bolutife "B" Dediare, a drum major in the Spirit of the Old Gold and Black band, said that knowing friends and other peers who lived in western North Carolina made the performance so much more impactful for her.
"There are so many elements to music more than just sound that provide that sense of impact that people see," Dediare said. "Within the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the staples that we saw was music, and people saw it as a sense of comfort, as a sense of belonging. And music, one of the elements that it provides is uniformity."
Andrew Bassard, a senior trumpet player in Wake Forest's band, said that he never expected for the performance to gain national recognition. And despite the usual flare of emotions during a rivalry game, Bassard said that there was a unique bond with NC State's band throughout the day.
"They were very welcoming, even when I was running over to [my mark], they were calling me over to them, and then when I got there, they cheered before we played," Bassard said.
For Heath, the moment was important for young people whom he believes should take opportunities to use art in a unifying way.
"When you have students at different universities come together and play such an iconic and emotional song with so much history, especially in a state like North Carolina, I think it just really showed everyone the bigger picture," Heath said.
"I just hope that this helps the people of western North Carolina," Garcia said. "Either by getting the word out to more people or whether it inspires someone to donate their time or whatever efforts they can. It's going to be a long healing process."
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