Originally published July 23, 2012.

When people travel overseas, they take in the sights, but rarely give anything back.

This wasn't the case for the group of Huntington North High School band students that traveled to Europe this summer.

Touring Europe with the Indiana Ambassadors of Music, Andrea Shriner, Quentin Lintz, Ali Meyer and Molly Irick were a part of a group of approximately 100 instrumentalists and 50 vocalists, all in high school, who performed at various locations across Europe.

Students had to be recommended for the trip by their band directors.

"I was pretty excited," says Shriner, a senior trumpet player, of being recommended for the trip by Huntington North Assistant Band Director John Gardner. "I didn't quite know about what it was about until we went to the first meeting. I thought it was really a good opportunity."

The trip lasted 16 days, from June 18 to July 3, and spanned seven countries, including the United Kingdom, France and Italy. Along with band parents Dave Shriner and Michael Lintz, former Huntington North band director Thaine Campbell and his wife, Millie, accompanied the students on the trip.

The band and choir contingents of the group put on five concerts apiece. The choir performed in churches and the band performed in open-air venues.

"All of them were outside, at least for the band portion," says Shriner of the venues. "We had a few stadiums and then a couple other places we just set up chairs in the town square and then played for them."

The music the band played ranged from patriotic tunes to selections from musicals. The band concluded each concert with "The Stars and Stripes Forever" by John Philip Sousa.

Between concerts, the students had plenty of time to sightsee.

"Probably the town in Germany with the walls surrounding it, Rothenburg," says Lintz, a junior trombone player, of the location he'll most remember. "It was a medieval town. Like a fortress type of thing. It was really interesting."

Lintz agrees, though, that one of the most fulfilling parts of the trip was "not just going there just to see stuff, (but) giving back kind of to the community and putting on a show."

"Feels good," he says.

"It was really cool," adds Shriner. "It's definitely not something I'm going to forget."

Complete caption: A group from the Huntington North High School band department poses in front of the Matterhorn on the border between Switzerland and Italy during a trip it took to Europe earlier this summer. The group included (front row from left) Millie Campbell, Andrea Shriner, Ali Meyer, (back row from left) former HNHS band director Thaine Campbell, Molly Irick, David Shriner, Raleigh Witham, Michael Lintz and Quentin Lintz.