Laiken Warrick walked into a band room at the Chippewa Falls Middle School seven years ago on the first day of middle school band and headed straight for the drums.
The move didn’t surprise anyone. Laiken’s father John had been a percussion player in high school and had played drums in a band in high school and college.
“He didn’t guide me to it, but because my Dad did it, I wanted to,” Laiken said of becoming a percussionist.
So did his twin brother Kasper. His seventh-grade brother Teagen is also following in the family tradition, and fifth-grader Sabyn intends to be a percussionist next year, too.
Little did Laiken know that when he strapped on that snare drum in sixth grade to march in Chippewa Falls’ Memorial Day parade, he would be marching down a path that Laiken admits helped shape his high school career.
His mother, Laura Warrick, noticed a change in her son that year.
“He really loved working with Mrs. Dineen (middle school music teacher Jessina Dineen) and music grew to be his favorite thing in high school,” Laura Warrick said.
‘She was a really good teacher and a big influence on me,” Laiken said. “She not only taught regular band, but gave us private lessons where, through 1-on-1 instruction, targeted your weaknesses and made you better.”
In Laiken’s case, music not only made him better, it brought out his best.
A four-year member of Chippewa Falls High School’s marching band, Laiken was honored in May as the first recipient of the “Greenhalgh Love of Music” scholarship, an award presented in the memory of Doug Greenhalgh, the Chi-Hi band director killed in an Oct. 16, 2005 crash of a school band bus.
Here’s how to support Chippewa Valley businesses Here’s how to support Chippewa Valley businesses “It was a great honor to receive the award,” said Laiken, who will enroll at the University of Wisconsin in Madison in the fall and try out for the Badger marching band.
Many other fellow students were also deserving of the award, he said.
“The fact that so many deserved the scholarship is a tribute to Mr. Greenhalgh,” Laiken said. “He helped so many people to become proficient in music.”
Studies important, too
Laiken pours his heart and soul into his music, but works equally as hard on his academics.
He grew up in a home where academics were stressed by his parents, and the Laiken boys were all encouraged to achieve lofty academic goals.
That paid off with great dividends for Laiken, who is enrolled this semester in an amazing five advanced placement courses in the areas of Spanish, English literature and communications, calculus, chemistry and biology — all which should earn him some college credits by the time he reaches the UW-Madison campus in the fall.