(Photo Provided) William “Bill” Van Pelt receives the ceremonial check for $1,000 from Artsbridge Executive Director Lindsey Dennis upon receiving the Janet Frazier Award for Excellence. The award was established by Maestro Luke Frazier, a graduate of Parkersburg South High School and creator of the American Pops Orchestra.

BELPRE — A Belpre High School teacher has received the Janet Frazier Award for Excellence presented by Artsbridge.

William “Bill” Van Pelt was awarded the first of two 2025 Janet Frazier Awards. Van Pelt has excelled in rebuilding the Belpre High School Marching Band after the program was eliminated by the Belpre City Schools Board of Education in 2008, Artsbridge announced.

The award was created in 2015 by Maestro Luke Frazier, conductor of the American Pops Orchestra, and is one of two awards named after his grandmothers, the other being the Donna Campbell Award for Excellence.

The Frazier Award is given to two fine arts teachers and the Campbell Award goes to two students. Teachers receive $1,000 and the students receive $1,500 for the first semester of college.

Van Pelt graduated cum laude in 1992 from West Virginia University with a bachelor’s in music education. He was a four-year member of WVU Marching Band, the Pride of West Virginia.

He has 32 years of teaching experience in Washington County, beginning his career in the Frontier Local School District where he taught general music and led the choir and band. During this time, enrollment increased in the marching band.

In 1996, Van Pelt went to Belpre City Schools where he taught elementary general music in grades K-6 for 14 years before moving to Belpre High School where he rebuilt the marching band program. Under his leadership, The Pride of Belpre Marching Band has become one of the largest in the Mid-Ohio Valley.

The band has qualified for the Ohio Music Education Association State Marching Band Finals for the past four consecutive years, the first time since 2001 Belpre High School has been in the finals.