FOLEY, Ala. — The Foley High School marching band is packing up their drum sticks and piccolos and heading to Foley founder John Foley’s hometown of Chicago.

Selected to march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Chicago, the band was chosen after a months long-application process.

“They ask for all kinds of stuff in the application,” Band Director Carl Major said. “They want to know if you’ve been on national television, what big trips you’ve taken before; they want to know everything you’ve done.”

The band’s participation in the Peach and Fiesta bowl were listed on the application. But it was the band’s status as a Grammy signature band that gave their application some weight.

“[Getting the grammy status] was a three-year long process too,” Assistant Band Director Jimmy O’Cain said. “We got it and we even got a letter from Bill Clinton congratulating us.”

The status, handed out by the actual Grammys, marks Foley as one of the top 100 music programs in the nation.

To live up to that honor, the band has tirelessly practiced and worked to make the trip to Chicago a successes since they heard the news of their selection last year.

“You have to have at least a year’s notice,” Major said. “They can’t just call you in October and say come on up and march.”

The band received their parade music in December and began practice about a month ago. While their sound and skills look perfect to the untrained eye, Majors says it’s not so.

“To the general person they look great and we do have great kids,” Major said. “They’ve been taught well and they have good attitudes. What we’re concerned with and what we want to make better, is what we look like when we pass the TV stands. We have to be perfectly straight.”

The band marches at a 6-foot interval front, back, left, right and diagonally to create perfect “boxes.” While from afar they may look perfectly spaced, the real tell is when they pass the cameras on the ground shooting close ups.

“From a distance if you saw it coming down the street it looks real impressive,” Major said, “When they pass that TV, we have to be perfectly straight because that’s what people remember.”

Major believes the biggest road block in their path to Chicago is the blistering cold and harsh winds they will meet in Illinois.

“We’re fighting the weather,” he said. “It makes it tough for our color guard to twirl the flag around and have that silk not whip back and hit them in the head. Your body reacts different when you're pushing air out playing a horn when it’s ten degrees.”

To adjust the students to the weather they have to get outside for 20 to 30 minutes during class time to become acclimated with the declining temperatures.

“The color guard don’t feel their fingers because the flag’s aluminum,” Major said. “ What they’re holding absorbs all the cold so it can feel like you’re just twirling a popsicle “

The rehearsals for the parade and the parade itself come during a time crunch; something many wouldn’t expect.

“Most people think after marching season — which they see on friday nights at half-time — that we just kind of sit around and wait for the next marching band season to roll around,” Major said. “But really, after marching season, it’s our busiest time of the year. We have a jazz band, percussion ensemble, steel band ensemble, concert band and the marching band, so it’s kind of tough to stop everything and get all of our eggs in one basket.”

Despite the difficulties, both the students and staff are excited for the trip.

“They were excited when we told them,” he said. “But now, the newness has worn off and its become the chore to practice and the chore for raising the funds which can take the fun out of anything. I think as soon as we get on the bus, they’ll forget all that and we’ll have a good time.”

After their months of hard work and performance in Chicago, the band will get to enjoy all that Chicago has to offer by visiting local museums, taking the Untouchables tour, a dinner cruise and taking in a Blue Man Group show.

“If we went [to Chicago] just to do the parade it wouldn't be worth it to the kids,” Major said. “Basically, if you were a tourist and went to chicago were doing all the things a tourist would do.”

The parade will be televised on WGN on St. Patrick’s Day.