Spirit Drum & Bugle Corps

It's that time of the season to thank everyone who has gotten us this far and remind everyone of how far there is still to go.

There are so many people who have helped Spirit this season. There is the group of Marching Staff (Visual folks to you youngsters) from the '80's who got together to set up a scholarship fund for Spirit members even though none of them were ever paid for teaching. There is the huge number of fans from all across the Drum Corps activity who voted for Spirit in the Chase Community Giving Campaign on Facebook. There are the Alumni who have stepped up and contributed to the 2010 Pay It Forward Campaign. And there are the Friends and Family who stop by to donate time or food or money when they visit Spirit on the road.

But remember the season isn't over. I realize that most of you know how hard the current economy has made things for our favorite activity, but it's worse than you might imagine for every Drum Corps out there. Souvenir sales are way off for everyone and probably won't do much better than break-even for most Corps. The activity is in dire straits and needs our help.

I sometimes wonder why people step up to the Herculean task of fielding a Drum Corps, and then I hear stories from the road.

July 8th marked the 30th anniversary of the passing of Jim Ott. If you know anything about Spirit at all, you know what this means to our organization. Roy Perez (Jim's best friend) put together a tribute video and shared it with everyone on Facebook. It's very bittersweet for many of us to revisit the emotions of that time, emotions that are always buried just beneath the surface never far from conscious thought. When thinking of those times you hope the current members know what they mean to us but always wonder if we truly have a shared history.

Then you hear from a fellow Alumnus whose daughter plays Mellophone with Spirit this year, that on the 8th they played Georgia and Salvation in remembrance of Jim and dedicated that night's show to him.

Or you hear from volunteers on the food truck (the hardest job in Drum Corps) how great it is to serve the members... how polite and appreciative they are.

It reminds me of why most of us get involved.

It's hard out there and we owe these members our support.

Alumni, contribute to the Pay It Forward Campaign. Friends and Family, contribute or drop off a food donation when you can. Everyone, volunteer at the Gadsden show or the Atlanta Regional next week.

And don't forget to stand up and cheer when you see them perform... we owe them that, too.