How do you pick out the proper size for a grass skirt? Inquiring minds in the Judson High School Marching Band want to know.

More than 200 band members, directors and chaperones will fly the friendly skies to Hawaii this summer, invited to present a patriotic concert at the USS Bowfin Submarine Park in Honolulu.

With approval from the district’s board of trustees, band director Dana Pradervand’s troupe actually began raising money in May 2005 – before Pradervand even informed the band it may have been chosen for the Hawaii trip.

“We knew we were going to do something big, so we just told them to start raising funds, as we were going to do something big,” Pradervand said.

A Feb. 21 letter from Patrick Connor, president of Director’s Choice Tour and Travel, confirms the 11:30 a.m. June 10 appearance. The Judson band will be part of Honolulu’s “Remember the Heroes” concert series, as bands nationwide arrive throughout the summer to perform and entertain.

Pradervand said she expects about 150 band members to make the trip, each having to raise the $1,599 that covers air fare, hotel stay, meals and entertainment.

Connor stated the Choice Music Events selection committee invited Judson “based upon their long history of outstanding concert and marching performances.” The band also will march in the Pan-Pacific Matsuri Parade in Waikiki on June 11.

“We started this process two years ago,” Pradervand said. “Because of the finances involved, we needed to. I’d talked with this company before, and they had this festival opportunity. And through the different competitions over the last three years, they are very familiar with our band … so we got the invitation.”

The concert will feature a 45-minute set of traditional patriotic numbers. For the parade, Pradervand said, “We’ll do much the same as we do for the Battle of Flowers Parade.”

The Judson entourage leaves Texas June 8 on a direct flight out of Houston, due to return June 14. Prior to leaving, however, the band will put on a “going-away show” to say “aloha” (which means both hello and goodbye in Hawaiian dialect) to its community supporters.

“We’re going to perform a June 6 send-off concert at 7 p. m. at the Performing Arts Center,” she said, “in our grass skirts, in Hawaiian shirts — it will be our sendoff concert. We’ll perform the same program and even do the parade performance, as well.”

Following the two official appearances, band members will shuck their uniforms and take up the role of tourists. The itinerary features a tour of Pearl Harbor, a Diamondhead State Monument hiking tour, a Waikiki catamaran cruise and Hanauma Bay snorkeling outing, a Hawaiian Islands highlight tour, attendance at a traditional luau, a tour of the North Shore, participation in a Hawaiian barbecue and “downtime” for shopping at the International Marketplace.

Pradervand said senior band members were worried the trip would occur following their graduation in May. Not to worry, Pradervand said.

“We told them they are invited to go as well, and they are going. How’s that for a senior trip?” Pradervand added, “We told them, ‘You guys are going with us, you’ll play, you’ll march and perform; it’ll be your final responsibility as a Judson band member.’ ”

The band has one major money-making venture left on its books: the Judson Band Booster Crafts Show and Rummage Sale, set for 9 a.m.-3 p.m. March 25 in the Judson Stadium parking lot.