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Archived Issues
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Crown Camp
Survives "Wintry Mix"
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With forecasts for Sunday ranging
from everything from "38 degrees and rain" to "33 degrees
and a wintry mix", Carolina Crown turned in one of thier most
productive camps of the season the weekend of February 14-16.
Even though the latest forecast
indicated the precipitation would not start in Ft. Mill until late in the
afternoon or early evening on Sunday, a "blizzard" of slushy ice began to
come down shortly after 11:00 am. With the ground and roadways quickly
being covered, Executive Director Kevin Smith made the decision to close
down the camp at noon and get everyone on the road as quick as possible!
(Luckily, knowing the weather to the north would deteriorate early, the
corps began dismissing many students from those areas early Sunday morning.)
Well, the driving was
slow and slick Sunday afternoon, however, the worst situations were
sustained by about 10-12 members and faculty that got stuck in the
Charlotte airport (or elsewhere) overnight due to cancelled flights.
Most of the stranded got out on Monday, however Carolyn Nuesch
of Pennsylvania and Steven Box a new member from England that flew
through Washington's Dulles Airport may have got stuck until Tuesday.
Jeff Queen, Crown's Percussion Caption Head, was trying to meet
back up with the touring company of Blast! in Omaha. With his
original flight out of Charlotte cancelled, so he was put on a flight
through Houston. Once there, he learned he had missed his connection
and was put on a flight to Newark. That flight was turned around
midway and sent back to Houston due to worsening conditions in the
Northeast. He eventually just flew back to Greensboro, NC (Blast's
next tour stop) on Monday and waited for the rest of the Blast! crew
to show up. Of course, Greensboro is only 90 minutes by car
from the Charlotte airport!
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Volunteer
Profile - David Whitesides
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David Whitesides is one
of the volunteer building blocks of the Carolina Crown organization.
Involved since he saw an article in the newspaper about Crown's inaugural
meetings, he has gone on tour almost every year since selling souvenirs,
driving or just helping anywhere he was needed. He also volunteers for many
other projects throughout the year, and now serves on both the Crown Board
of Directors and Executive Committee.
David has lived in his family
hometown of Shelby, NC his entire life. Having studied Music Education at
Gardner Webb University, he is currently the assistant band director at
Shelby High School, and has been teaching color guard at various schools
including Shelby, Lincolnton, Cherryville, Bessemer City and Ashbrook for
over 15 years. David has arranged for the use of Shelby HS for Crown camps
in the past, and is also Crown's on-site coordinator for our current
Cleveland/Rutherford County Middle School Honor Band event (to be held this
year on March 14-15, 2003).
Fellow Crown Board Member and
Lincolnton HS Band Director James Turner says, "David is one of the nicest
guys you could ever meet. He is also one the most dedicated and hardworking
individuals. He would give you the shirt off of his back anytime you ever
needed. His love for music and kids is very evident by what he does. He
loves working and volunteering with Carolina Crown. He is a very valuable
assets to anyone who knows him. I have seen him stay up most of the night
and all day on tour helping out, or spending many hours driving back and
forth to Fort Mill to help do something. David just has a love for people
and for helping out that I have never seen in anyone else. He's always
there when you need him."
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Crown Executive Director Kevin
Smith adds, "David is one of the most respected and loved volunteers of
Carolina Crown. In the early days of the corps he was one of a handful
of key volunteers that I could count on each summer to help us get the
corps through the summer tour. Not having David around the corps at
this point is just something I could not imagine. He has remained
totally committed in his support of Carolina Crown, and is a great
personal friend!"
David Whitesides is a great
Carolina Crown volunteer. He is one of the many people that have made
the Crown organization what it is today. Thank you, David!
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3rd Annual
CrownClub Weekend Set for 5/16-18
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Mark Your Calendars!!! Carolina Crown will
be holding our 3rd annual CrownClub Weekend on May 16-18. This fun-filled
educational weekend is open to everyone - parents, fans, volunteers, alumni,
etc. This year's event is being held at a local hotel on the same weekend
as Crown's May camp weekend. This will give all the attendees the best of
both worlds... a fun and educational "get-away" event combined with the
excitement of a Crown camp! And don't worry; we hope to again secure a
local band booster group to handle the cooking at the camp for the weekend
so everyone can attend! So, what better way to spend a weekend than with
other fans & supporters of Carolina Crown!
A general schedule of the weekend is as follows:
Friday, 5/16 - normal camp activities
Saturday, 5/17 - morning - Welcome, Introductions & Educational sessions
at a local hotel
afternoon - Educational sessions
*evening - Dinner at local restaurant, & then
maybe a show/movie/bowling/ballgame/karaoke, etc *(optional)
Sunday, 5/18 - morning - Educational sessions & Wrap-up
afternoon- "Show & Tell" performance at camp |
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More information, registration and hotel reservation forms will be emailed
soon and be included in the next edition of CrownBeat!
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Calling All Volunteers!
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For 14 years you have
heard our cry, "Calling All Volunteers"! Yes, it is
once again time to ask for the assistance of all our supporters in
getting the corps down the road on yet another summer tour. Support
staff are needed to do everything from cook and serve food four times
a day; prepare over 12,500 gallons of drink mix; mend a torn uniform
or flag in a rush before a big show; empty trash bag after trash bag;
and "just be there" to answer a question, lend a helping
hand and be a nightly cheering section for our members! We promise,
it will be an experience you will never forget!
The summer tour is broken
down below into seven teams by date. The length of time commitment
varies by the team you select. For teams not originating in
the Ft. Mill/Charlotte area, Crown will run a shuttle out to the corps
and back (or pick you up and/or drop you off along the way if it is
on the way to/from the starting/ending point). We also encourage
you to sign up for more than one team if you are available! And
if you are not available to sign up for one of the teams, we encourage
you to call/email the office about helping out for all or part of
a day when the corps comes to a town near you (click
here to see the corps tentative summer tour schedule)!
If you can help on one
of these teams, please call (803-547-2270) or email (crown@carolinacrown.org)
the corps office at your earliest convenience.
A tour "Volunteer Handbook" will
be sent to you before the summer, but we also encourage you to ask questions
when you call/email the office. But, the best way to learn what being a
member of the corps' support staff is all about before you come out on tour
is to call/email the office and sign up for one of our remaining winter
camps.
2003 Summer Tour Support Staff
Teams:
Team #1 - Begins 9:00pm
Thursday 6/19 (from Ft. Mill) - Departs 7:00 pm Wednesday 6/25 (from
Charlotte, NC)
Team #2 - Begins 7:00 pm
Wednesday 6/25 (in Charlotte, NC) - Departs 10:00 am Sunday 7/6 (shuttle
from Hershey, PA)
Team #3 - Departs 7:00 pm
Saturday 7/5 (shuttle to Hershey, PA) - Departs 11:00 pm Saturday 7/12
(shuttle from Dekalb, IL)
Team #4 - Departs 7:00 pm Friday
7/11 (shuttle to Dekalb, IL) - Departs 11:00 pm Wednesday 7/23 (shuttle from
Kennesaw, GA)
Team #6 - Departs 1:00 pm
Wednesday 7/23 (shuttle to Kennesaw, GA) - Departs 11:00 pm Wednesday 7/30
(shuttle from Columbia, SC)
Team #7 - Departs 5:00 pm
Wednesday 7/30 (shuttle to Columbia, SC) - Arrives 12:00 pm Sunday 8/10 (at
Ft. Mill, SC)
The Dog Days of … Winter
| In Major League Baseball, it occurs sometime
in July when you’re playing a weekend series against the last-place team
in the league. In the NFL, it’s right around week 4 or 5, when that
non-conference schedule hits. In the NBA, it’s that period before the
All-Star break where no one really cares. It happens to everyone, in
every season. It’s that period where it seems like nothing matters.
It’s not the beginning of the season, it’s not the end of the season.
It’s just kind of… the unimportant middle.
We’re at that point in the winter where the
introductions are over and the rehearsal has begun, yet it still seems
that Spring Training (and the “real excitement”) is a while away. Of
course, it’s this time in the drum corps season that is perhaps the most
important. The hard work and preparation we put in NOW will save us
precious hours in August. The commitment we make NOW to working lip
slurs, playing rudiments, tossing rifles, and getting in physical shape
will pay off big in a few months. And the attitude we take NOW—to make
the 2003 Carolina Crown the best yet—will help make that wish become a
reality when all is said and done in Orlando.
All those pennant races
and confusing playoff pictures usually can be avoided by playing well in
the first half of the season. How good a drum corps we are in August
will be determined right now.
David Roth
Drum Major 2003
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Catch Crown at the Beginning and End in 2003
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Mark your
calendars!
FirstBEAT
Tuesday, June 24th
NightBEAT Tuesday,
July 29th
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The 2003 summer drum
corps tour is now official from Drum Corps International. Once again,
Carolina Crown will be visiting several other states from Florida, to New
York, to Texas and back. This year the NightBEAT committee is excited to
announce that this season Crown will have one of its first stops, AND
ending stops, in Charlotte.
As usual, NightBEAT will be
on the final week of the season before all the corps head to Orlando for the
World Championships. Once again, we expect an excited and raucous crowd of
close to 8000 fans at what has become one of the most exciting nights for
the performers on the DCI tour. There is no doubt that corps members know
that if they come to NightBEAT, they can expect one of the most electric
audiences that they will experience all summer.
This year we are excited to
have the defending 3-time champion Cavaliers and 2003 runner-up
Blue Devils to headline NightBEAT. With them is Spirit, Seattle
Cascades, Blue Knights, and of course, the anticipated homecoming for
Carolina Crown.
The NightBEAT staff is also
proud to announce that we will be hosting an early season show! FirstBEAT,
set for Tuesday June 24th and tentatively scheduled to be held at
Waddell High School in Charlotte, will allow local fans to catch some drum
corps early in a more intimate setting. The perfect way to get a taste of
what the season will bring before the main event at NightBEAT!
Corps performing at
FirstBEAT will be Carolina Crown, Bluecoats, Crossmen, Scenic
City, Teal Sound and Revolution, the 2003 Division III champions.
Please visit our webpage on
this site for up to date information as it is made available or call
803-547-2665. Tickets are on sale now, so take advantage to get the best
possible seats at both events!
We look forward to seeing
you there.
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Keith Miller
NightBEAT chairman
1990 Carolina Crown alumnus
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Why do you support
Carolina Crown?
| I recently read an
email from a former Carolina Crown board member that made my hair stand
on end. This person, who shall remain unnamed, has been a supporter of
our organization since the very beginning. In fact, he was one of our
key leaders in the early years—the years when we marched 60 or so
members and were happy just to field a corps so the kids could
experience this great activity.
I deleted his email, so I can’t
quote from it verbatim. However, the crux of the disturbing message was
that our long-time friend and supporter had decided to withhold future
financial support for Carolina Crown because he didn’t like the show
last year. That’s right, BECAUSE HE DIDN’T LIKE THE SHOW!!! |
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This was the
message from a person who put as much blood, sweat and tears into this
organization as any of us had in those early days—early days where our show
“quality” and competitive placement levels couldn’t hold a candle to last
year’s Carolina Crown. You can imagine how this message dumbfounded me. But
the most alarming element here is that if this man feels this way, how many
others of you out there are passing similar judgment? Withholding support
because you don’t like what we played or where we placed last year?
Well, if that’s
the case, you are missing the point.
Sure we want our
fans to be entertained, and I can’t think of any member, parent, volunteer
or staff person who doesn’t want to place high in the rankings. But if
that’s all we care about, then we are in the wrong business.
The developmental
experience we provide our members at Carolina Crown builds excellence—their
personal excellence. It is the journey that accomplishes this, not the
destination. If you can’t support that concept without knowing what music
we will play or what drill patterns we will march, then you do not
understand drum corps.
If you want to be
entertained, invest in movie tickets or a box seat at the ball game. If you
want to participate in developing lifelong excellence in young people
through a superior and challenging performing arts education experience, you
know where we are.
Bill Loelius
President
Carolina Crown Holds two Honor Band Events
The
Second Annual Cabarrus County Middle School Honor Band and First Annual
Cabarrus County High School Honor Band, held the weekend of February
21-22, was extremely successful. Jay Watkins,
Assistant to
the Director of Bands at University of Texas was the Guest Conductor of the
High School and Ed
Benson, who was the Instrumental
Coordinator for the Charlotte/Mecklenburg School System, a position held
until retirement in June of 1997,
was the Guest Conductor for the Middle School Honor Band. All four
High schools and six Middle schools in the county participated, and the two
honor bands had a total of 190 participants. Blair Smith and the Band
Boosters at Robinson High School were very helpful setting up the stage,
serving lunch on Saturday, refreshments during rehearsal breaks and ushering
during the concert. Over 400 family and friends attended the Saturday
afternoon concert!
Thanks goes out to Brian Bambauer, Blair Smith, Leigh Smith, Moe Smith,
Kevin Smith, Ryan Summers and all participating Directors for making this
event a huge success.
Carolina Crown
Hosted the third Annual Union County Middle School Honor Band The
weekend of February 21-22 at Sun Valley High School. All Six middle
schools in Union county participated including Monroe Middle, Weddington
Middle, Parkwood Middle, Piedmont Middle, East Union Middle, and Sun Valley
Middle.
Over 85 Students
Participated in the two-day event which included three long rehearsal
blocks, a pizza lunch organized by the directors and a free concert.
Dr. Lissa
Fleming May served as this year's guest conductor. Dr. May
joined the faculty of the Indiana University School of Music in the fall of
1999 as Associate Professor of Music Education. Her duties include teaching
courses in instrumental music education, the placement and supervision of
music student teachers and guiding graduate research. She holds BME, MS,
and DME degrees from Indiana University.
Saturday's
concert had over 200 parents, family and friends, included five pieces
highlighting the 2003 Honor Bands talents and achievements.
Thanks goes out
to Mekel Rogers, Rena Morton, Seth Murphy and all of the participation directors who
helped make this event successful.
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