Greetings all,
As you read this article, I want you to think about the good ol’ days when drum corps was alive and thriving, and those long, hot summer days meant somewhere a drum corps was rehearsing and preparing for a performance. Well, in Sacramento those days are back! That’s right! On June 24, the Mandarins drum corps moved into our spring training site at Rio Linda High School and on Friday we started learning the 2021 program “Beyond the Canvas”.
Because of the unrelenting efforts by many people throughout the organization, we can absolutely state that 100% of our members, 100% of our instructional staff, and 100% of our admin/volunteer health & wellness teams are fully vaccinated! We have created our family bubble and the drum corps is thriving! The vibe is great throughout every section and even though the days are long and hard, I see smiles throughout the corps at the end of every day – simply stunning!
On a different note –
“I want to say a big “thank you!” to the many generous donors who supported our scholarship programs for the year, either by making a donation for the 2021 Big Day of Giving or directly through the Mandarins website. The funds raised were distributed between the Mandarins education programs. For the drum corps specifically, we were able to award a total of $17,025 in scholarship funds to 19 corps members. The Scholarship Committee was impressed with the quality of applications submitted. Recipients were awarded scholarships from our general scholarship fund, and our sponsored scholarships: Bruce Lum, Kevin C. Gee Memorial, Felicia Louie Memorial, Floree Fong Gee Memorial, and the Nisei Drum Corps Alumni Association. The recipients have been notified of the awards and we look forward to recognizing them at Family Day.
As you can see, there are many amazing things happening throughout the drum corps and it is only going to get better! You can still be an active participant within this amazing 2021 season. If you are fully vaccinated and have some time on your hands, we still have a couple of open kitchen crew tour spots available and one non-commercial driver tour spot available. If you can commit to a week or more, say as an example: July 25 thru August 1 or August 1 thru August 8 or August 8 thru August 15 (or a similar variation), we can support your travel to and from the corps’ location on the road. So, what are you waiting for??? Time is running out for you to join and become a member of this awesome team supporting our drum corps because it really does not get much better than this. Honest! So, call or text me, JW at 408-921-6231.
As always, thank you for EVERYTHING you do for us!
Ciao,
JW
Corps Director
