A small segment of the 168 BHS Concert Choir tour members stalled in Italy by Iceland's volcanic ash should be the first to arrive on U.S. soil late on April 21, if their re-scheduled flight departs as planned.

On Tues. April 20 at 6:50 p.m., BHS principal Lee Panagoulias contacted parents to notify of 13 tour members, including a chaperone, to fly home at 2 p.m. Milan time (about six hours ahead of U.S. EST). The American Airlines flight touches down in Dallas, TX before resuming to Newark, NJ, arriving at 11:35 p.m. EST.

"Please understand that each flight is still subject to unforeseen cancellation," Panagoulias noted, adding "…unfortunately, this process appears as though it will be taking place over several days, but I have every confidence Cathyann (Roding) and her group are taking the best care of our students."

BHS Music Director Cathyann Roding will be contacting parents as their student is named to a group/flight over the coming hours/days, said Panagoulias, who will meet with all parents Wed. April 21 at the school.

On April 20, Roding sent parents a message via YouTube with news of games, sports and impromptu concerts taking place at "Camp Roding" while students await word of their exit flight.

"Everybody back home can be very proud of the way these students have conducted themselves and we certainly have a lot to be proud of musically," said Roding.

During its scheduled tour, BHS Concert Choirs (Concert Choir, Music Makers, Main Street Singers and Brave Heart Men) won five top prizes at an international choir festival in Verona, Italy.

The group of 168 includes school chaperones, family members and 102 BHS Concert Choir students. Their trip began April 9 and was set to end April 18. On April 17 flights out of Milan began cancelling due to unprecedented ash cloud disturbances from Iceland's volcanic eruptions, which began two days earlier. Nearly 1 million travelers have been stalled as planes remain mostly grounded across northern Europe and into northern Italy.

The tour group has been lucky in that it has kept accommodations all through the extended stay, said Roding. Today (April 21) about half of the group will relocate to new hotel, about 20 minutes away. Room and board is being billed and plans are being discussed to rally the community to help raise funds to pay for the unforeseen expenses, once everyone's safely home.

In the meantime, Roding emphasized everyone is safe, sheltered and well-cared for.

"Everybody at this point is healthy, we're in a gorgeous area of Italy and we're fortunate to be here on Lake Garda," instead of "sleeping on a floor," said Roding.

Roding told parents the students have been exemplary during both the scheduled tour and the days since it ended. She said they're "staying busy" with organized "choir Olympics" activities everyday since the official tour ended.

"I really just don't want you to worry… whatever length of time this is going to be, we just need to accept it…it's absolutely nothing, nothing we can control and so we're just lucky we're in a safe and sound place and we're managing to have a good time together," said Roding.