Kentucky Man Drives 11 Hours for High School Band; Steffa Drops Memoir

A Kentucky resident known as "Bill from Kentucky" drove 11 hours to Sapulpa, Oklahoma on Friday to watch the Sapulpa High School marching band perform at halftime of the Sapulpa-Coweta football game — buying pizza and making donations for the entire program — more than a year after a Sapulpa student greeted him in a crowded convenience store line, according to Aubrey Gates in Hoodline. In music publishing news, educator and composer John Steffa released his travel and composition memoir Notes from Afar, reported in The Press.

A 2025 Buc-ee’s Greeting Sparks an 11-Hour Drive to Sapulpa

As first reported by the Sapulpa Times, the connection began in 2025 when two charter buses carrying the Sapulpa High School band stopped at a Buc-ee's in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Standing in a checkout line of roughly 30 people while buying fudge, Bill was approached by Sapulpa band student Colin Ingram, who turned around to ask how he was doing and strike up a friendly conversation.

Moved by the teenager's kindness, Bill later emailed Sapulpa band director Whitney Yokum and made the 11-hour drive for Friday's Sapulpa-Coweta game. A former band booster whose 24-year-old son played in band, Bill spent the game in the bandstand visiting with students and directors, bought pizza for the entire Sapulpa band, and contributed additional donations ahead of the band's final scheduled performance on Friday, Nov. 6 against Will Rogers High School.

Composer John Steffa Publishes Notes from Afar

Celebrating a lifetime in music education, Iowa native and University of Texas at Austin composition alumnus John Steffa published Notes from Afar. After earning his doctorate, Steffa taught music composition in Kentucky while his late wife, Nancy, taught public school orchestras.

Drawn from travel journals kept before 2022, Notes from Afar chronicles the couple's summer expeditions — including glacier survival in Alaska, throat singing and staying in a ger in Mongolia, exploring mountain regions of Taiwan, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, and attempting Mount Everest — and how those cultural encounters inspired original compositions performed at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall at the Kaufman Center, and the Mansion at Strathmore in North Bethesda, Maryland. Steffa is also the author of Twyla - The Early Years - 1902-1926 .