enlarge The Associated Press

Sanford High School’s marching band got to play before President Barack Obama in Tuesday’s Inaugural Parade.

The Sanford High School marching band returned to Maine on Wednesday, exhausted but elated from the experience of participating in Tuesday's Inaugural Parade in Washington.

Members said Tuesday's events were physically grueling. Before getting the signal to march down Pennsylvania Avenue for 30 minutes, they waited for several hours in subfreezing temperatures and a brisk wind.

Their day began with a wake-up call at 1:30 a.m. at their hotel, located 30 miles north of Baltimore, and ended the following morning at 12:30 a.m., when the last of the band's buses rolled into a hotel parking lot in southern New Jersey.

Band members said that despite the long day, they will remember their 30-minute march for their entire lives.

The highlight was playing in front of the reviewing stand that featured President Barack Obama, said saxophone player Stephanie Brock, 17, a senior.

"He had this huge smile on his face. I was happy to see him," she said. "I was completely overwhelmed. I can barely describe it."

Matt Doiron, the school's music director, said: "He waved to the band and waved at the kids and applauded. It was the greatest honor of my life."

The band raised about $32,000 to help cover the trip's expenses. In all, 76 students marched in the parade.

Sanford performed two pieces, the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and the "Maine State Song," which they also sang.

Doiron said that when the buses arrived at the New Jersey hotel early Wednesday morning, the students were asleep. Doiron, meanwhile, had gone about 41 hours without sleep.

"The hotel was one of the most welcomed sights," he said.

When the band's buses arrived in Sanford around 6:20 p.m. Wednesday, a Sanford Fire Department engine and two Sanford police cruisers escorted them through the city. More than 100 people met the buses at the high school, Doiron said.

Staff Writer Tom Bell can be contacted at 791-369 or at:

tbell@pressherald.com