JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. -- When members of the 56th Army Band performed for Sgt. 1st Class Thomas Babbit's high school nearly 30 years ago, playing professionally as a musician was still a new dream for him.
Now, it's a reality every day of his life.
"Everything I always envisioned happened because of this band and what I heard," said Babbit, now a drummer for the same band that graced his Idaho school when he was a junior.
"We were the only school they came to in Idaho. They touched my life," he added, standing on the steps of the auditorium stage at Evergreen Elementary, here March 23, before one of many shows he and the band have played the past month for schools across the installation and in surrounding communities.
Their performances have been part of an effort spearheaded last year by Babbit to honor Music in Our Schools Month, a celebration started in 1972 by the National Association for Music Education to highlight the importance of music education throughout March.
Babbit and the band pay their tribute by playing as many gigs as they can for kids of all ages.
"The focus is getting these younger children interested in music and the arts," said Babbit, a Weiser, Idaho, native. "There's nothing in life these kids do that doesn't involve music, and we want to put a live spin on it."
Last year, the band played 27 shows and closed the end of the month with performances at a few schools in Montana.
This year, it started Music in Our Schools Month on Feb. 24 and will play its last show April 4.
Waiting in the school auditorium for 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders to begin trickling in, Babbit recalled the concert at his own school, during which members of the 56th's rock band showed them what playing music in the Army was all about.
"They played 'Mustang Sally,' " he said as a smile enveloped his entire face, bobbing his head to the music coming to life in his memory.
It's a moment the 43-year-old will never forget, even though he almost let it slip right through his hands.
Babbit played football, baseball and wrestled in high school. But, he admitted, he was never good enough for the pastimes to take him any further than that.
"I wasn't big enough to go on as a professional, so my stepdad got me professional drum lessons one-on-one," he said.
Over the next couple of years, Babbit developed a passion for the instrument. When the 56th Army Band visited his high school, its drummer even let Babbit play his set.
Then, at 18, Babbit graduated high school and became a meat cutter instead of pursuing music.
"I was making 18 dollars an hour; I had a career already set up," he said.
But the joy he got from the Army band's visit would always burn in the back of his mind.
"I remembered what I saw when the 56th Army Band rock band came to my school, and it was time to make a decision, and I did," he recalled, adding that he also felt guilty he'd squandered the talents his stepdad helped bring out in him.
"I felt bad because he spent all that time and effort, and the money to get me private drum lessons, so I said, 'I'm going to go to the recruiting station,' " he said.
And now, he uses the month of March to show youth there's more to the military than what they see in the news and on TV.
"I want the children to know that in the military everything is not about blood, killing and war," he said.
"There are a lot of kids in these schools that we play for who have parents in the military, and they just see what they see on TV, because that's what our media does -- they put the bad things on there."
The band members play a line-up of music that encompasses American pop culture -- songs the kids can identify with.
They start off with the Star Wars Theme, which provokes the same thing in every audience: An onslaught of smiles and laughter. Then, as the commotion grows ever cheerful, they transition into the theme from "Super Mario Brothers."
Among other fun tunes, the band performs the theme from the popular children's TV show "Spongebob Squarepants" and lays down an instrumental rendition of the Justin Bieber song "Baby."
"Music kind of defines culture and defines who we are," said Jessica Strand, fine arts teacher at Carter Lake Elementary on McChord Field, March 22 following a performance by the band for students at her school. "And it's fun, and kids need to have fun in school."
But the concert, she said, did more than simply make the children move and laugh, and conjure up for them light-hearted excerpts from pop culture.
"It's the epitome of an authentic experience," she said. "In school, teachers always strive to give their kids an authentic experience.
"Whatever concept you're learning, you love for kids to see an example of that in the real world."
Strand admitted that, while real-world teaching isn't always a realistic goal, the 56th's performance achieved just that.
"It's hard when you're just in a classroom and you can't bring the world inside all the time, so this is one of those opportunities where we can do that."
"It's helping me learn different instruments, because some of them I didn't actually know the names to," said Trevor Elliott, a fifth grader at Carter Lake who aspires to some day become a professional guitar player.
But the learning, Strand said, goes beyond music education.
"Music encompasses everything," she said. "It's mathematical, it's scientific, it's artistic. And it uses both sides of the brain, so when children are listening to music they're engaging in both the left side and the right side of their brain."
And for Babbit, whose life was jump-started by music, it's all about passing the buck.
"Kids are our future," he said.
"We need to be strong citizens and show them there are other heroes than what they see in cartoons and all the things on TV."
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