ShawneeDispatch.com

The Shawnee Mission North High School Strolling Strings members came out of last month with a hitch in their get-up.

The school's unique ambling orchestra has spent three years raising $117,000 for a summer trip to Italy and Greece. Their fund-raising was right on target until a few weeks ago, when the group learned they would need $10,000 more than planned to cover a spike in airline ticket prices, a result of inflated fuel costs.

What Strolling Strings doesn't earn through fund-raisers in the next few weeks will come out of students' pockets. That adds up to about $300 more per student, which is a problem for those on a tight budget on short notice.

Karen Hensel, the Strolling Strings director, has taken six groups to various countries in Europe since 1990 and said the group was always well received for their novel performance style.

"They're classical over there," Hensel said. "That's not what we do. We memorize all the music and we stroll around. They're not used to that."

This year's trip is planned for June 9 through 20, and about 30 of the 42 students in Strolling Strings class have been planning to go.

Hensel said when students, thinking they were financially almost there, learned of the price hike they were thrown for a loop.

"The kids said 'We'll do anything -- we don't want to cancel,'" Hensel said. "And we have been fund-raising like you wouldn't believe."

The group's next fund-raiser will be a Chris Cakes pancake dinner from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at Antioch Middle School, 8200 W. 71st St. All-you-can-eat tickets are $5 per person.

There will be another Chris Cakes dinner from 5 to 7 p.m. May 16 in the Shawnee Mission North cafeteria, just prior to the school's band, choir and orchestra concert.

Strolling Strings sells CDs of its performances and also plans to have a garage sale, said Miki Mertz, president of OOPS, the Organization for Orchestra Parents and Students.

"We are still excited about the trip," Mertz said. "A little nervous about the money, but we'll come up with it someplace. We're hoping a lot of people turn out for our pancake suppers."

Mertz said a travel company, Music Celebration International, arranges tours for groups to perform all over the world. Participants make scheduled payments in advance of the trip, and the company makes arrangements as number commitments and flight schedules come in.

North junior Krystal Nelson said she made a commitment a long time ago to pay her own way for the trip, even taking an extra job to save money to go to Italy and Greece.

"I personally have been planning this since my freshman year," she said. "I've been really excited about it for the past three years."

As planned, her job earns enough to make regular payments, she said. But it's not going to be enough for the unexpected payment added on, so Nelson said she hoped the fund-raising and maybe a few donations from family and friends would pull through.

"We all feel so privileged to be able to go on this trip," Nelson said. "I can already just expect the greatest life experience I'll probably ever have."

The European trips are both musical and cultural, Hensel said. The group books performances as well as sight-seeing excursions.

At home, Strolling Strings performs frequently at school and in the metro area. Just last week the group played at Overland Park Place Friday and for a group at North Saturday night.

Hensel said the mobile musical performances were a hit with audiences of all ages at home and abroad.

"It gives everybody the personal touch," she said. "It's very interactive."