April Update from Corps Director JW Koester
Greetings all!
Spring has sprung and that IS a good thing. Vaccinations continue to be expanded to more people and the age restrictions continue to be lowered. This is great news for the drum corps because as more people get vaccinated, we can simplify the development and implementation of our summer bubble and our Health & Wellness COVID protocols.
Yes, that is right. We are developing our COVID protocols and procedures for the summertime right now. Why? Because we need to be in alignment within the drum corps team. Plus, we need to provide our plan to Drum Corps InternationaI for their review and input prior to being able to start our spring training program.
On the drum corps front we have opened the virtual video audition submission portal for our new auditionees where they can submit their videos for the opportunity to become a member of the 2021 Mandarins Drum Corps.
The design of the show continues as we are finishing up work on the closer. Peter Beckhart, our drill designer, has started putting dots to paper (well, electrons to his hard drive). You get the idea. The guard costume design is complete, and the corps proper design is in progress with Fruhauf Uniforms, Inc.!
I would like to welcome Tyler Allin to the drum corps team as he has agreed to manage our food services program for 2021. Tyler is an alumnus of the drum corps and has been an important member of the Great Plates and Cal Fire food programs that Mandarins has taken on. I look forward to working with him as we continue to provide amazing, healthy meals to the drum corps. Many thanks to Cathy Sackett who has been our food services manager for the past several years and has done an outstanding job in that role. We will miss her tremendously. She isn’t leaving completely as she will advise Tyler as he gets up and running.
So, when I said in my opening statement that spring has sprung – you can now see exactly what I mean! The clock is officially ticking because Spring Training is scheduled to start on Thursday, June 24, in the Sacramento area and yes, we are getting geared up to have an awesome summer!
Ciao,
JW
Corps Director
