Riverhead High School students shine at Music in the Parks

The high school's chamber choir won "Best Overall High School Choir" in the Music in the Parks festival at Kings Dominion, Doswell, Virginia today. They won first place and were rated "superior" by the judges.

The high school orchestra and jazz band were both rated "excellent" and the orchestra placed 2nd in the competition. The jazz band didn't compete because there were no other jazz bands in the competition, according to my trusted source, my 10th grade daughter, Katie Blasl, who's in the chamber choir.

Congratulations to all these fine musicians and their extremely dedicated teachers, Sean O'Hara, David Loddengard and Lee Hanwick.

There were some scary moments in the park late this afternoon, as a line of severe thunderstorms blew through. Nobody was injured, thankfully, but there was lightning, hail and strong winds, and the kids were in the picnic pavillion as the storm passed. The system spawned at least three tornadoes, according to the National Weather Service, which were spotted in communities to the northeast, east and southeast of the park. They were all pretty shook up.

A tornado watch remains in effect there until 9 o'clock tonight. It sounds like the park might be closed for the evening, and the students are going to go back to their hotel in Richmond. They are supposed to go back to the amusement park tomorrow morning, before boarding their buses for Riverhead mid-afternoon.