Against all odds, the state Senate yesterday approved spending $42, 750 in taxpayer money to help send the Danvers High band to march in the Rose Parade on New Year's Day.

The expenditure, if passed by the full legislature and signed by the governor, would come in the form of a matching grant in the same amount that Danvers Town Meeting spent last spring to buy uniforms and equipment for the trip to Pasadena.

The town has raised some $300,000 for the trip, but has come up short.

The chance the state would pitch in for the band trip was a long shot, as it's extremely rare for the Legislature to reach out and pay for a special project at an individual high school. But local lawmakers are now optimistic.

The money has been included in a supplemental budget, the type often passed at the end of a legislative session to pay unexpected bills.

"You're kidding me," said an incredulous Peter McLaughlin, co-president of Parents for Music Education, the band boosters group, when told the Senate had approved the money.

"Wow. Wow," he said.

McLaughlin and others had been watching to see what the Senate would do after the House passed the $42,750 band item last week. He had been preparing parents for disappointment.

House and Senate leaders have to be careful when they spend the taxpayers' money, said state Sen. Fred Berry, D-Peabody. He and state Rep. Ted Speliotis, D-Danvers, had to make the case that the band's trip was out of the ordinary.

Speliotis called the band "ambassadors of the state." Berry called the trip "a once in a lifetime experience for those kids."

"We were able to convince them and I'm very happy about that," Berry said.

When the House passed its version, Speliotis wasn't sure leadership would support the measure. And getting the measure through the Senate "was a major hurdle and I know how hard Senator Berry worked to get over that hurdle," he said.

The house version of the supplemental budget includes the Danvers band money as an item in the Massachusetts Cultural Council account. The Senate version has the money in a different Education Department account.

The two chambers must work out a compromise version, pass the budget, and have Gov. Paul Cellucci sign it.

Road to the Roses

When the Danvers band received the prestigious invitation to the Rose Parade earlier this year, Band Director Ron Parsons and the leaders of PME sat down to figure how much it would cost to go.

They estimated $300,000, a staggering amount for a town like Danvers to raise. Town Meeting was among the first supporters of the project, making sure every student who qualified could go. The band had grown from about 140 members to 170.

The students and their parents staged a long series of events including everything from a motorcycle poker run, to a fudge sale, to a car wash and a magic show. Small checks from individuals steadily added up, as have checks of $500 and $1000 from local businesses and service clubs.

But after all the fundraising was over, the Road to the Roses drive fell $30,000 short.

Costs for the six-day trip have crept up, meanwhile, beyond the $300,000 goal. Costs for shipping the band's instruments across the country are especially high, accounting for about $50,000 of the total expenses.

Even with the $300,000 in fundraising, each band member must pay for part of the trip. At first the kids were told it would cost $400 each to go; now the figure's at $600. The state matching grant would likely mean a small rebate, and would take the burden of worrying about the money off the shoulders of Band Director Ron Parsons and volunteers of PME.

Vote coming soon

The waiting and wondering should be over soon. Berry is hopeful the vote on the supplemental budget will come this week, perhaps as soon as Thursday.

Speliotis warned the check won't be in the mail until the final vote is taken, but said, "today was a very major victory in that process."

Berry was clearly delighted. He praised Danvers for raising so much money for the trip, a feat he said had impressed people at the State House.

"I give most of the credit to the good people who raised all that money," he said, saying the volunteers backing the young people in the band put a lot of "blood, sweat and tears" into the effort.

The Danvers High Marching Band has already won a long shot - being chosen to march in the Rose Parade in the first place. The local band is one of just 16 high school bands chosen from a nationwide field of thousands. The parade is viewed by 325 million people worldwide and by a million people along the 7-mile parade route.

When Tournament of Roses President Lorne Brown visited Danvers in May to meet with town and school officials, he explained Danvers has an unusually small band to be chosen for the parade. Most bands boast 250 musicians or more.