The Youth Trumpet and Taps Corps

Katie Prior is the 15-year-old founder of the Youth Trumpet & Taps Corps, http://trumpetandtaps.org/ a non-profit organization that trains, supports, and recognizes high school trumpet players who use their musical gifts to honor military veterans. Katie has recruited and trained trumpet players in Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Illinois, Nebraska, and Wisconsin who volunteer to sound Taps at military funerals and perform patriotic music at community events honoring veterans. When Katie heard that many veterans’ funerals have an audio recording of Taps, she decided to recruit her friends to see to it that veterans in her community get the live tribute they deserve. She developed the program as her Girl Scout Gold Award and became the council’s youngest awardee in history at the age of 14. She has since grown her organization, held training workshops in Texas and Wisconsin, and created an online training that can be taken by any high school trumpeter across the country. Katie is a trumpet player with Oklahoma Youth Orchestras.

I am proud to be attending the White House ceremony to support and honor Katie Prior and the Youth Trumpet & Taps Corps, an organization Taps For Veterans is pleased to be associated with. Katie and her group of young people who are making a difference! I plan to visit her group and do a training session with them.

Katie will be speaking on a panel discussion about girls and leadership. To watch, visit www.whitehouse.gov/live on September 15th at 9:30AM ET. Katie is speaking on the second panel. Each panel is about 1 hour long.