FAIRHOPE, Ala. — During an awards ceremony May 6, one Fairhope High School band member will receive the “Blanche Simmons Award.”

It’s the second year of the annual award in honor of Simmons, who was band director at FHS from 1955 to 1986. She died Dec. 19, 2007, in Huntsville.

“That student will exemplify the spirit of the band,” said Will Duncan, band director since 2005. “We think the history of this program is unique. For the past 50-some years, there have only been a handful of band directors. That’s unheard of.”

Sometime this summer, another new Fairhope tradition inspired by Simmons will occur: the first annual FHS Band Alumni Reunion.

“Simmons had such a profound impact on so many lives during her 30 years at (FHS), the group wants to honor her memory with a local program this summer, that former band students, band parents, and her colleagues can attend,” said George Miller, who is organizing the reunion planning meetings. “Through the messages posted in the online (funeral home) guest book, former band students began to reunite. We found that many students from ‘Blanche’s Army’ still live in this area.”

Miller played trumpet in the band, graduating from FHS in 1981. For the past 20 years, he has been organist at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Fairhope.

Many former band members have continued playing music, many professionally, and a number are band directors themselves, he said.

Miller said a group of former band students met on Feb. 10 to think about planning a reunion.

“Being former band students, we all instantly had something in common, whether we graduated in 1962 or 1982, each had a favorite story to share,” a new Web site for the association states. “We discussed what type of event would work best to honor the memory of Miss Simmons. At this point, the most popular choice would be a reunion at the Fairhope Civic Center, featuring former students as speakers and musicians.”

Miller said a date for the first reunion event had not been set but might coincide with Simmons’ birthday, who would have been 80 this summer.

He said the group is now in touch with an e-mail list of more than 50 former band members. The next organizational meeting of the band alumni association will be at 5 p.m., Sunday, April 16, at Redeemer Lutheran Church, 200 S. Section St.

Miller said the meeting is open to all FHS band alumni, and alumni band parents interested in helping organize the reunion.

“We just packed up a lot of Blanche’s plaques,” Duncan said Thursday, anticipating the move of the band to the high school’s new art wing, which includes an array of new band rooms and offices. “We will have a lot more wall space in the new facility.”

Shelves in the FHS band room are crowded to overflowing with trophies, many of them won while Simmons was band director.

The current 130-member marching band recently had a distinctive honor of its own, playing in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Chicago.

“The kids were wonderful,” Duncan said. “It was good to see them that far away for such a high-profile event. It was cold in the mid-30s with light flurries, and they had to stand out there from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. before performing. But I didn’t hear one complaint.”

Miller said learning life lessons and how to get along with people during stressful situations was one of the fringe benefits of being a member of Blanche’s Army.

“When you put on that uniform for Miss Simmons, you were representing Fairhope, and when we went on the road, for Alabama,” Miller said. “And occasionally for the country, like the time we performed in Mexico City.”

Simmons’ influence is still evident in the FHS band.

“She taught several generations of students,” Miller said Thursday to Duncan. “Now you’re teaching the children of those generations.”

As Miller spoke to Duncan in the FHS band room this week, his daughter Kacey sat holding a bass clarinet a few yards away.

For more information about the reunion, contact George Miller at 510-3005 or geowmill@yahoo.com, or visit the group’s Web site at www.fairhopehigh.com.