It’s been a bit over 2 years since I met Amy Allender. Don’t know about you, but I chuckle as she gives us insight into what we North Dakotans do, that is unique and certainly worthy of a story in the Northern Sentry.
Well, just as North Dakotan is our braggadocios behavior about who is “From Around Here.” I have taken that platform several times to tell folks about best kept secrets. My son(s) call me a professional networker because I seem to know, or know about, almost everyone. In that light, I met up with someone who I think you should all meet. Folks, this week’s article is about DeAnn (Hickel) Fylling, a member of the 188th Army Band, and I am mighty proud to say, “she’s from around here!”
For a couple of months I was able to tell folks about the 188th Military Band appearing at Oak Park on a Sunday night, July 21st. As one of the emcees for the Minot City band, I could proudly and boldly declare that a young lady from Minot, DeAnn Fylling, was one of the leaders of the188th Army Band, that being the position of 1st Sergeant. Of course there are an additional 44 talented musicians in the 188th, but DeAnn is from around here, right?
Growing up just a couple of blocks from our home in northwest Minot, DeAnn’s mom, Shelli, and my wife, Sue worked together for a few years. From that relationship I met DeAnn’s father, Brian. I am going to fast forward a bit and explain that the Wilsons were all boys. We knew DeAnn well, but her path through high school would take her to Bishop Ryan. Our boys went to Minot High. You might say we kind of went separate ways, the Wilsons and the Hickels.
After graduating in 2001 from high school, DeAnn would begin her music education at Jamestown College, “now the University of Jamestown” according to DeAnn. Next? “Well, I taught in Milnor for about 5 years, and then in 2009 my husband and I moved to Bismarck, and we were expecting a baby that fall”. At that time Fylling was already in the Army National Guard, a career that has spanned over 23 years “and of those 23 year I have been in the (Army National Guard) band for 16 of those.”
After spending about a year at home with their first child, DeAnn went back to work full time for the National Guard in a military funeral honors position, which she really enjoyed, but baby #2 would soon be on her way, and “I wanted to spend time at home with my kids, so I’ve been doing the Army Band part time and staying at home part time ever since then” says Fylling.
In the Army National Guard band, Fylling plays saxophone, guitar and does vocals. “We play all different kind of saxophones depending on the need” says Fylling “right now I’ve been doing a lot of baritone (saxophone).”
The 188th is a typical guard unit, in that they drill one weekend per month “and we have an additional 2 weeks that we spread out over the year. We are doing 10 days now. We are here after doing Medora for 3 days. We’ll be here at the North Dakota State Fair for 3 days, we did the Minot Arts in the Parks show and at the end of the week we’ll go to Mohall and Bottineau.”
For 5 days every fall the band does tours of local schools “yeah, it’s really neat. It’s called Music in our Schools tour. So, for 5 days we on tour. We’re based in one place, and we try to hit 6 or 7 schools over the course of a week with all of the different ensembles performing at different schools. We try to get the students involved in our outreach stuff” according to Fylling. After a quick calculation DeAnn comes up with “in my years we’ve probably hit well over 100 schools for sure, showing them what we do and getting them involved.”
The 188th is a deployable unit “but we haven’t been needed overseas at this point” says Fylling “the Army band has done a lot of state side activations. When the DAPL protests were going on we were activated down there for just over a month, and in the 2009 & 2011 floods, which of course very much affected Minot.”
And then we started talking about home. “I feel there are more familiar faces in Minot than anywhere else. I’ve been out of Minot for over 20 plus years. It’s fun to get home and catch up with everyone else in Minot” DeAnn shares with a smile.
Like old friends who catch up, there is always so much to talk about. DeAnn’s father, Brian passed away unexpectedly a few years back, and today’s concert would be a little hard because Brian came to all of her concerts and sat in the front row. And then there’s the battle that the Fylling family is fighting, DeAnn’s breast cancer. I shared with her how much energy she had on stage at the Oak Park concert. “Sometimes you just have to kind of make it work” DeAnn shared. The day I talked with her, a Monday, was her first Monday without a chemotherapy treatment. Except for the obvious loss of hair, you would never know. She still keeps up with her band appearances, her 3 kids and of course a household. Hopefully the next time we talk, we can talk in past tense about her cancer. It will be a battle she has won.
And then there came a voice from stage…” Sound check”. So well-orchestrated, everyone took their place. Today was not going to be a picnic in the park for the 188th jazz band and saxophone quartet; oh, did I mention that DeAnn and the saxophone quartet just returned from a good will tour in Africa? Now let’s get back to the area where the band would perform. It was a very hot, muggy day. But the show must go on, and so it did. DeAnn grabbed her baritone sax, took her seat and was ready to play. Her mom, Shelli, sat next to me, concerned of course for her daughter because of the hot sun.
I learned from a very dedicated journalism teacher back in college that you never end a good story, on a bad note. The concert was absolutely great! Several good notes!
I hope that those who read this story understand the admiration and respect that this journalist has for DeAnn Fylling and the entire 188th Army Band. I also hope all of my readers understand that DeAnn and every member of the band loves what they do. It’s more than just a one weekend a month job.
Finally, if you don’t know DeAnn, I highly encourage you to attend one of the 188th Army Band concerts in the future. Take a couple of minutes after the concert to greet all of the members of the 188th Army Band; but especially DeAnn Fylling, because you know…yes sir, she’s from around here.
