The Vernon Girls Trumpet Band circa 1980s.

Image Credit: FACEBOOK/VGTB Winter carnival 2020

VERNON - Cathy Sim is going to get the band back together.

But this isn't a reunion of some old high school friends who made poor fashion decisions and strummed guitars together hoping to become rock stars.

Sim is rallying former alumni of The Vernon Girls Trumpet Band to come together to perform at next year's Vernon Winter Carnival.

For Sim, whose grandfather Robert Hodgson founded the girls only marching band and whose mother, June Rigby, ran the band for decades afterward, getting the band back together is a very personal thing.

"I would like my mom to see the band again," she said.

Sim said Hodgson started the band in 1947 because "there was nothing for girls to do." Originally the band was part of the army cadets and girls had to enroll and follow the strict military rules.

"Girls would lop off their hair (to join)," Sim said. "People who had grown their hair all their lives they'd just cut it off because they wanted to be a band girl."

Over time the band separated from the cadets and became the Vernon Girls Trumpet Band. Rigby took over the reins and Sim joined as a drummer at the age of seven and stayed until she graduated high school in the late '70s.

The band took her across Canada, all over the U.S. and to Europe a few times.

"Because it was family I loved it," she said.

Sim's mother committed immense amounts of time to the band and Sim's daughters continued the tradition being the third generation of the family to play in the band.

However, after 62-years, in 2009 the band dissolved. The high cost of travel combined with the dozens of other extracurricular activities not available in 1947 meant the band blew its trumpets for one last time. It's estimated about 2,500 girls have been members over the band's six-decade-long history.

After a few years of thinking about it, Sim said she's decided to act and is gathering former band members to reunite and perform at the 60th anniversary of the Vernon Winter Carnival in February 2020.

Sim already has some former alumni committed and is appealing for others to come forward by Oct. 1 to practice for next February's Winter Carnival parade.

Sim doesn't envision remembering how to play the music again will be an issue "it's like riding a bike."

"I could be wrong, but I've already been told people already know their music even if they haven't picked up an instrument in years," Sim said.

"The marching might be a bit more interesting," she jokes.

With alumni being in their twenties to seventies (or older) Sim said the band will accommodate everyone regardless.

"It was such a big part of a lot of peoples lives... people talk about how much they miss the band."

Sim said it doesn't matter whether people no longer have musical instruments as they will be supplied.

"We're putting the family back together again," she said.

For more information and for alumni to enroll go here.

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