ABOUT

Welcome to the official Web-site of the Busy Bee Band & Honeybees of East Fairmont High School.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the group, we hail from Fairmont, West Virginia, which is located approximately 90 miles South of Pittsburgh.  The school has an enrollment of roughly 750 students.  The band numbers 180 musicians and Honeybees, making up over 25% of the school enrollment.

In 2008, the Busy Bee Band & Honeybees celebrated their 39th Anniversary.  Over the past three decades, the group has traveled extensively up and down the East Coast of North America.  Trips to Toronto, New York, Washington, D.C., Myrtle Beach, and Orlando have made the group one of the most traveled organizations in the State of West Virginia.  The group has performed 22 consecutive years for the Pittsburgh Steelers, participated in the 1989 and 2002 Presidential Inaugural Parades, and has performed for countless parades and shows in the local and regional area.  In 2000, the band took its unique style and sound to the West Coast to participate in the 111th Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California.  Nearly 500 million people around the world had the opportunity to see the group take the famed turn from Orange Grove to Colorado Boulevard. In 2004, the Busy Bee Band & Honeybees became the first musical ensemble to perform at the newly opened World War II Memorial in Washington, DC. In 2006, the group traveled to New York, where it became the first high school band to perform at Rockefeller Center in nearly 30 years. In April 2007, the Busy Bee Band traveled to the 54th Annual Azalea Festival in Norfolk, Virginia where it was awarded Grand Champion of the Parade of Nations. In March of 2008, the group traveled to Nassau, Bahamas for a 3-day cruise aboard the Carnival Cruiser Fascination. The band has also been featured in four national magazines, SYTA's Student & Youth Traveler, The Instrumentalist, School Band & Orchestra and MENC's Teaching Music.  In 2019, the group once again traveled to Nassau, Bahamas aboard the Carnival Liberty, where they performed on-board in the Venetian Palace and in Nassau in Rawson Square.

For an organization to work as well as the Busy Bee Band & Honeybees do, it takes a strong Booster Organization and dedicated Alumni.  The group has been blessed with a supportive community that is willing to go the extra mile to ensure that the students of this county are given opportunities that are educational and memorable.  The citizens of Marion County deserve a huge and heartfelt thank you for all their support over the years.

Of course the backbone of the organization is a strong and dedicated director, Mr. TJ Bean, and choreographer, Kelly Michael.  Together, they have taken the legacy passed down from Earl W. McConnell, Sr., Earl W. McConnell, Jr., Millie McConnell, and Tracey Linn and moved it ahead with vigor and energy.  With an eye always to the future, the group continues to remember its past and honor those who came before.

As a gift from the Class of 1996, the Busy Bee Band & Honeybees took to the Internet in the winter of '96.  Originally, the site was hosted on America Online and contained basic information concerning travel and history.  The site was a means of publicity for the group and was founded on the concept of keeping alumni in touch with the organization's latest undertakings.  In September, 1999, with the help of alumnus Chris Moran, the site made its official move to its current address of busybeeband.com.  Web-masters Mike Swisher and Jason Davis redesigned the site at the time for the Rose Parade trip.  Over a 5-day period while the band was in California, the site attracted over 4,000 visitors and received over 800 messages for the group.  The site continues to evolve keeping in mind its primary goal:  Bringing together current and past members of the organization.

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A special thanks must be given to those who have contributed photos, memories and time to bring this site to you: