For the first time in its history, the Penn State Blue Band had a home for its alumni to come back to this Homecoming.

The band held a ceremony yesterday to officially dedicate the Penn State Blue Band Building, located at the intersection of University Drive and Services Road.

Band director Richard Bundy, who spoke at the event, drew a parallel between the birth of the 24,000 square-foot structure, which had its groundbreaking ceremony at Homecoming last year, and the birth of his first grandchild.

"Every day I've been watching two babies develop," Bundy said to the crowd. "The band is in its 105th year of existence and we've never had a home."

Audience members clapped in cadence to Penn State fight songs performed by an abbreviated Blue Band as they welcomed the speakers to the podium.

Athletic Director Tim Curley said the building has been needed for a long time.

"As we celebrate our 150 years, it's only right to give the heartbeat of the university the home they deserve," he said.

Penn State President Graham Spanier said the Blue Band deserves a home because it provides so much to the school.

"Few other groups have led so many in song and created such an enduring sense of pride while bringing thousands to their feet," he said.

The band's musicians, silks and majorettes were previously limited to storage trailers by their practice field, Bundy said. The new building has been open for operation since August and has proved its worth, he added.

"We're able to be much more efficient and effective with the students," Bundy said. "Students in the band were able to accomplish so much in spite of a facility. Now it can be because of it."

The new facility includes a 6,000 square-foot indoor rehearsal room as well as staff offices, men's and women's locker rooms, a Blue Band archival showcase and storage space for instruments and uniforms.

During his speech, Bundy thanked various donors for both their time and money.

The $4.5 million project was paid for in large part by the Alumni Blue Band Association, the Penn State Alumni Association, the HRH Foundation and more than 5,000 private donors.

But Bundy, who played trombone for the band from 1966 to 1970, said the hardest part of achieving the goal of a new facility was making others realize the need for it.

"It took a while to get initial support, to get the ball rolling," Bundy said.

Blue Band member Claudia DeVuono (senior-landscape design) said the band needed the facility to be more effective.

"Having a facility allows us to perform our job for the university better and easier without wasting time," she said.

DeVuono added that band members used to joke that when newcomers joined the organization, the tour of the band's facilities included pointing at trailers and showing them the outdoor bathrooms.

Blue Band alumnus Jim Humelsine, who has only missed three Homecoming weekends since he graduated in 1983, said the band's new home will spare the current band from the toils of the past. "The joke was that when it rains, the woodwinds have to go in, and when there is lightning the rest of us go home," Humelsine said. "Here, you don't have to worry about that. Everything can get done in one place."