Laura Pentelbury: An airline strike, 82 stranded kids, and a heroic 500-nugget order
The Line presents the story of how Calgary's Stetson Showband drove thousands of kilometres to make their showtime.
By: Laura Pentelbury
On Thursday, June 27th, I sent my 17-year-old on a long-planned and much-anticipated tour to Disneyland with the Stetson Showband, the high-school-feeder organization into the Calgary Stampede Showband. He plays the trumpet. He is awesome. So are all his bandmates and chaperones and instructors. There were 82 kids with their flutes and trombones and tubas and drums and flags, all excited to parade from Disneyland’s It’s A Small World to Main Street.
They were taking WestJet.
Anxiety loomed over their departure — we all knew that WestJet’s mechanics were warning that they might strike as negotiations between their union and the airline seemed to be going nowhere. But their plane took off on time. They landed safely. And then — euphoric news – Federal Transport Minister Seamus O’Regan announced that the strike was averted — both sides were determined to be at such an impasse the feds had to step in. Binding arbitration was ordered and my fellow parents and I assumed, and I stress assumed (pride before the fall), that the mechanics would stay on the job.
Whoops.
Readers, they did not. The mechanics walked off the job. At 12:30 a.m. June 30th, WestJet cancelled the band’s flight home. The Calgary Stetson Showband was stuck in Los Angeles, almost 2,000 kilometres (by air!) from home.
After 11 hours on hold with WestJet and no assistance or information incoming from the feds, the band, with the assistance of their tour provider Kaleidoscope Adventures, slapped the lot of them and their tubas and snares onto two coach busses home. This involved a bus changeover in Montana to Canadian vehicles plus an overnight in Utah.
I’m not here to take sides. No one in this saga, other than the kids and the heroic parents and instructors who cared for them and the bus drivers who transported them, bathed themselves in glory here. WestJet’s communications were abysmal at best and the mechanics could probably have behaved a little more honourably. I get why they filled this vacuum with a strike. I sympathize with them. My husband is a highly skilled tradesman who often gets treated with disdain by the so-called “elites” in this country. I have a lot of time for hard-working people earning an honest living with their hands. But, like, come on. Don’t strand kids.
Alas. By bumbling their way into this disaster, everyone — WestJet, the union, the federal Transport minister and the merry band of dumbasses that surround him — abandoned my child and all the others in a foreign country. And just … froze.
The kids and their adult chaperones made the best of it. Parents stuck back at home, waiting anxiously, were provided with regular updates by the parents and staff on board the two coaches of where they were and how everyone was doing through a parent Facebook page. One hilarious anecdote involved a pre-call to the Dillon, Montana McDonald’s to warn them of an incoming order of over 500 nuggets, 43 burgers and 97 orders of fries. Staff were called in. Yet more honest and hard-working heroes. There were examples of that everywhere along this ride.
At 1:30 a.m. on July 3rd, The Stetson Showband and their adult companions finally reached the Canadian border at Coutts. In a spectacular showing of bureaucratic insanity only CBSA can explain, it took a whopping hour-and-a-half (and change!) to process 82 teenagers and 16 adults. All Canadians. There was no cocaine in the trombone slides, guys. We ought to be able to do better than that.
My husband is South African and his family is spread all over the world. There is a family WhatsApp chat. Loving family members and friends on four continents followed the saga right until the buses arrived at Bishop Carroll High School parking lot at 6:15 a.m. on July 3rd. They left at 9:30 am (Los Angeles time) July 1st.
I took a video of the bus my son was on as it arrived. It’s still raw — only been a few hours as I wrote this — but I choke up every time I watch it. I probably will for the rest of my life.
They performed the night they arrived. A Showband Showcase at McMahon Stadium in Calgary. Then a day of rest and the parade and Stampede began. No rest for the wicked.
My son will never forget his adventure. Facilitated by loving staff and parents and an organization that went above and beyond in every possible way to protect my son in a crisis. Surrounded by his friends.
It doesn’t make it okay. I hope we get better answers in the days and weeks to come as to why it came to this.
In their most recent The Line Podcast, Jen was asked by Matt to explain The Stampede to outsiders. Jen nails it. It’s the community spirit — the entire city comes together for 10 days in July. It can appear confusing to others, instantly explainable once you arrive.
It was this community spirit that protected my son. Not only was it unthinkable for a band attached to the Calgary Stampede brand to miss the parade, it was unthinkable to leave them there at all. The show must go on, the kids must be safe. We must get them home. So onto the bus they go.
The Legend of The Great Bus Ride was thus born, but in the end, the show went on. And my son is safe at home.
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Great story that demonstrates the power of relying on one another and not waiting for government to “ fix” what they cannot
Your story made me get teary eyed when I came to the Montana Macdonald bringing in extra staff to help out, and the general initiative assistance and helpfulness of every Westerner from Canada and USA. The CBSA reaction is unfortunately typical. As a dual national I have come to expect a smile and “welcome home” heading South to be treated as a criminal when going north.