Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps

As summer approaches, twelve thirteen talented Santa Clarita high school students are anxiously awaiting their opportunity to spend the summer months on tour with several top-notch World Class Drum and Bugle Corps. While their shows aren't quite the same as the dance scenes in High School Musical, these students will be playing music, dancing, spinning, training and competing on a very high level for the entire summer preparing for shows that will absolutely knock your socks off.

Long, hot days, often with 12 hours of practice or more, will be rewarded by the thrill of competing against the best Drum and Bugle Corps in the nation for the ultimate prize: The DCI (Drum Corps International) World Championships in Indianapolis this August and a chance to perform in front of 60,000 screaming fans on Finals night.

Along the way, the members of these Corps will partipate in day after day of competitions as they tour the country. For the Madison Scouts, a World Class Drum and Bugle Corps, their schedule includes 12,000 miles of travel across 16 states and 33 performances before they reach the finals. At times, they will have 5 days in a row of competitions! Other World Class Corps will have similar schedules, while the Open Class Corps have schedules that aren't quite as arduous.

Santa Clarita high school students will be participating in a variety of corps, some local, some far away, some World Class, some Open Class. Here's a list of this summer's rock stars:

Drum & Bugle Corps	Location	Student	Instrument	School
Blue Devils B	Concord, CA	Brandon Gedalje	Snare	West Ranch
Madison Scouts	Madison, WI	Kevin Slocum	Color Guard	Valencia
Mystikal	Long Beach, CA	Jasmine Young	Color Guard	Valencia
Pacific Crest	Diamond Bar, CA	Ryland Schell	Snare	Valencia
Pacific Crest	Diamond Bar, CA	Robyn Kamp	Color Guard	West Ranch
Pacific Crest	Diamond Bar, CA	Jennifer Myung	Color Guard	West Ranch
Pacific Crest	Diamond Bar, CA	Matt Atkin	Contra/Tuba	West Ranch
Pacific Crest	Diamond Bar, CA	Carl Burnstein	Percussion/Djembe	West Ranch
Santa Clara Vanguard	Santa Clara, CA	Ronny Sunnaa	Baritone	West Ranch
Santa Clara Vanguard	Santa Clara, CA	Zach Christy	Contra/Tuba	West Ranch
Velvet Knights	Pasadena, CA	Kyle Ballard	Percussion/Pit	Saugus
Velvet Knights	Pasadena, CA	Naomi Kaswan	Color Guard	Saugus
Velvet Knights	Pasadena, CA	Dalia Berman	Pecussion/Marimba	West Ranch

The World Class Drum and Bugle Corps represented by our Santa Clarita youth are the Blue Devils, Madison Scouts, Pacific Crest, and Santa Clara Vanguard. The Open Class Drum and Bugle Corps represented by Santa Clarita students are Mystikal and the Velvet Knights.

Tour fees and schedules vary, but in general those participating in the non-local World Class Corps will be required to make a larger commitment, both financially and time-wise, to their chosen Corps.

For example, Madison Scouts members are required to pay dues in the amount of $2,000 and partipate in various fundraisers to help offset the overall costs of the summer tour. Their move-ins start on May 23, with all members living "in residence" with the corps (as in sleeping on gym floors together) for the entire summer. They have a full cook-crew to prepare all meals during their training camps, move-ins and on tour, with menu items including yummy-sounding ice cream cones with brownie mix in them. Santa Clara Vangard has similar requirements, with dues of $2,200 and move-ins starting on May 16. Both of these corps also have several required weekend camps (Friday night to Sunday afternoon) through the Winter and Spring months (November through early May), so airfare costs will also add up for these kids.

In contrast, Mystikal members are required to pay a tour fee of $1,000, and their schedule leaves most weekdays open for daytime work and summer school so they sleep in their own beds at night. Typically Mystikal will be away from home for the last 10 days of the summer tour. Pacific Crest has a schedule similar to Mystikal's, with weekday rehearsals from 2pm-8pm to allow for daytime jobs and summer school, plus weekend camps during April and May. They will tour for 3 1/2 weeks at the end of the season. Dues for Pacific Crest are $1,900 per summer.

Teaching Our Youth to be Productive, Motivated Adults

Most of the drum and bugle corps are now co-ed, with the exception of the Madison Scouts and the Cavaliers, which have boy scout origins and remain all-male corps. Each of the corps will have its own mission and objectives, but generally all corps will have a strong emphasis on education, leadership, confidence-building, accountability, goal setting and performance skills. While many of their members will not pursue careers in the music field, they do take with them these very important skills that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.

Frank, an alumni of the Madison Scouts, had this to say about his experience from 30 years ago: "If we apply the Madison philosophy to our every day lives when we are in the workforce, we will be successful. Meaning that if we all do what we are supposed to do and apply ourselves to our passion, even when we are tired and miserable, you will be successful. I can tell you that all these years later, I still push myself to my limits every day as a sales person because of my years in corps. I'll stop and make one more call or get in a little early to check on progress of my projects in production because my experience in Madison. It took a few years removed from corps but I finally realized how valuable my experience was in corps."

Think about it: We're sending 13 Santa Clarita students off to an adventure that can help mold them into successful, motivated adults. Many of these kids will remain with their chosen Corps for several years (minimum age requirements will vary by corps, but typically will be those who are age 16 by June 1 and they cannot be 22 before June 1 in their final year). My son will be the youngest member of the Madison Scouts this year, since he will be turning 16 only days before the June 1 cutoff. That means that he will have the opportunity to spend several years with the Scouts, improving on his leadership skills and building on his experiences year after year. Each fall he will return to school and be able to use his experiences to help motivate his fellow students, helping him to develop his leadership abilities, and helping his friends to strive for better results as well.

These Students are Asking for Your Help!

As you can see, each of these twelve students is making a huge commitment to the drum and bugle corps activity this summer. They are giving of their time, sweat, and possibly tears at times in order to participate in this life-changing activity. They have all requested that I do what I can to help get the word out that sponsorships are the key to allowing them to continue participating in drum corps and learning the leadership and other skills that will last them a lifetime. Dues for the World Class Drum and Bugle Corps run about $2,000 per year, plus most of these students also have travel (airfare) costs to bear. While dues and travel costs for the more local Open Class Corps are not as high, these students also need your help in meeting their financial commitments.

Annual costs for each summer tour run about $1,000,000 for a typical World Class Corps that spends almost the entire summer on the road. Dues usually cover about a third of this, with 150 members each paying about $2,000. The rest of the funding for each year's tour comes from fundraisers, alumni and sponsors. Costs for each tour include transportation (vehicles, fuel, and maintenance), housing (typically gym floors), food (usually prepared by a cook crew), salaries for staff (most of whom are underpaid), equipment (drums, horns, pit instruments, color guard equipment), uniforms, and other administrative costs.

If you can help out at all, whether with a $20 contribution or a corporate sponsorship of one (or some) of these students, you will have a huge impact on their lives. While I cannot give out their contact information in this format, I can give you the contact information for the various drum and bugle corps as well as the local band directors. In addition, I have the ability to contact most of these students directly, so I'll be happy to pass on any messages to them. Here's a directory of the corps and the local band directors for those of you who would like to assist our local "rock stars" this summer:

• Blue Devils
  • Website: http://BlueDevils.org
• Madison Scouts
  • Website: http://MadisonScouts.org
  • Fuel-A-Thon Fundraiser:
    • http://squidoo.com/madisonscoutsfuelathon
  • Raffle: Win a 4-night trip to Disney World in Orlando including airfare, a 42-inch plasma HDTV, $750 cash, and more! $10 per ticket, drawing to be held August 8. Only 5,000 tickets will be sold. More info here.
• Mystikal
  • Website: http://Mystikal-Corps.org
• Pacific Crest
  • Website: http://Pacific-Crest.org
• Santa Clara Vangurd
  • Website: http://SCVanguard.org
• Velvet Knights
  • Website: http://VKYAO.org
• School Band Director Contacts
  • Hart
    • Anthony Bailey: abailey@hartdistrict.org
  • Saugus
    • Robert Gibson: rgibson@hartdistrict.org
  • Valencia
    • Erin Stankey: estankey@hartdistrict.org
  • West Ranch
    • Jason Marshall: jmarshall@hartdistrict.org

Watch Your Favorite Corps From Home, 24-Hours a Day!

DCI has just announced thei new Fan Network program, which for a measly $69 allows you to watch your favorite corps 24 hours a day. This program will provide live streaming video for selected shows (currently Madison, Wi; Stanford, CA; Denver, CO; San Antonio, TX; Atlanta, GA; Bloomington, IN) as well as backstage videos from "embedded" corps video crews and access to mulimedia files from DCI's historical vaults. If you want to see what your kids are up to, or are just a drum and bugle corps fan, click here to sign up for the DCI Fan Network.

The Fine Print: I've attempted to include all Santa Clarita area high school students who will be participating in the Drum and Bugle Corps activity this summer by contacting all of the school band directors. If you (or your child or student) was inadvertently omitted, please forward me their info and I'll modify this post to give proper recognition to all of our Santa Clarita rock stars.

Students: If you learn of specific fundraising efforts that you'd like to feature, let me know!

Press/Media: These students would absolutely LOVE to be featured in the local media. Contact me and I'll help you to contact the students for interviews or statements. Thank you!