Hello to all of the parents of our marching band and color guard. As you know, the practice season has started and the students are learning a lot of skills for the upcoming competitive season. Melissa English has written this blog for several years and her entries will remain in the archives as an additional resource for us all. After the season ended last year, the blog fell into its customary silence while everyone rested and recharged. This year, with the reawakening of the blog, it has some new voices. Taking the responsibilities over from Melissa are Todd and Kim Schwartzkopf. We have been involved in the marching band since 2011 and have experienced marching band in many different ways. Our student played mellophone for all four years of his high school career. We did our part by chaperoning, helping with band camp and serving on the Invitational Committee.
You might be asking yourself, if you started in 2011, then why are you still helping out? That’s a very good question and we happen to have a very good answer. We had a single year break after our student graduated before our next student joined the color guard as an 8th Grader. This was a dynamic shift for us as parents to go from one component of the band to another. It now offers some really great opportunities. We have experienced three seasons of Winter Guard in addition to five seasons of Marching Band. What this will do is potentially allow us to continue the blog through the “silent” period after the band season closes. Many are not aware that our color guard only has a couple of weeks off before their winter season begins. A large portion of our color guard competes year round.
This blog will strive to be not only informative, but also short and, hopefully, mildly entertaining. This being our first post, we apparently have a lot to say, but we would prefer to provide shorter and more frequent posts. As we ramp up and begin this process, we want to say thank you. Thank you for reading this, but more importantly, thank you for supporting your student. Because we have witnessed the commitment these students have made to be State Champions, we have also witnessed the support and sacrifice from their parents. So, thank you for this. To our committee chairs, we know that you carry a lot of responsibility and that a good portion of our programs success is because of your dedication. We thank you, as well.
May we all remember that every part of this program needs helping hands to be successful. It starts with our Directors who rely heavily on our Parent Board, which in turn, relies on our Committees, and they rely on you. Our students, well, they rely on all of this. So please be generous with your time as it helps a lot more than you might imagine.
You might be asking yourself, if you started in 2011, then why are you still helping out? That’s a very good question and we happen to have a very good answer. We had a single year break after our student graduated before our next student joined the color guard as an 8th Grader. This was a dynamic shift for us as parents to go from one component of the band to another. It now offers some really great opportunities. We have experienced three seasons of Winter Guard in addition to five seasons of Marching Band. What this will do is potentially allow us to continue the blog through the “silent” period after the band season closes. Many are not aware that our color guard only has a couple of weeks off before their winter season begins. A large portion of our color guard competes year round.
This blog will strive to be not only informative, but also short and, hopefully, mildly entertaining. This being our first post, we apparently have a lot to say, but we would prefer to provide shorter and more frequent posts. As we ramp up and begin this process, we want to say thank you. Thank you for reading this, but more importantly, thank you for supporting your student. Because we have witnessed the commitment these students have made to be State Champions, we have also witnessed the support and sacrifice from their parents. So, thank you for this. To our committee chairs, we know that you carry a lot of responsibility and that a good portion of our programs success is because of your dedication. We thank you, as well.
May we all remember that every part of this program needs helping hands to be successful. It starts with our Directors who rely heavily on our Parent Board, which in turn, relies on our Committees, and they rely on you. Our students, well, they rely on all of this. So please be generous with your time as it helps a lot more than you might imagine.