4th Annual Scout House Black Thursday Pub Night

The fourth annual Preston Scout House Black Thursday pub night on April 2, 2015 will include a touch of blue for Jessica Smith and Kylie Bradshaw, members of the Ventures Winter Guard of Kitchener, who are planning to march with the Bluecoats drum and bugle corps of Canton, Ohio this summer. The pub night will provide fund raising opportunities through draws and games of chance.

Black Thursday pub nights aim to restore the close relationships between former members of the many drum and bugle corps that flourished in the Guelph, Cambridge, Brantford and Kitchener/Waterloo area over the past 50 years. They are an opportunity for individuals of any age and background to celebrate drum and bugle corps and marching arts involvement at any time during their lives.

The pub night will take place beginning at 7 pm at the Preston Knights of Columbus building at 333 Speedsville Road in the Preston district of Cambridge. The building is the Scout House winter indoor rehearsal facility. Admission is free, with plenty of free parking available.

Scout House provided the same opportunities for local guard members to raise funds for their summer program at last year’s Black Thursday event. Bluecoats winter camps are already in progress. Individuals attending pay a $100 registration fee and must provide their own transportation to Canton. Total costs for the summer program are about $3,000.

There is another close connection between Scout House and the Bluecoats: Kitchener resident Dave MacKinnon, who has arranged all the Scout House field show music, including Miserlou, Waltzing Matilda, Land of Make Believe, Johnny One Note and Through The Eyes of Love, the love theme from the movie Ice Castles. He is returning this winter for his 22nd year of activity with Bluecoats as brass supervisor. He joined the Bluecoats staff in 1994 following a long period of time dating back to the 1970s when he was the music director of the Ventures all girl drum and bugle corps of Kitchener. He was elected to the Bluecoats Hall of Fame in 2009. He has taught, written, and consulted for drum and bugle corps in Canada, the United States, Korea, and Japan for many years and is an active music judge for U.S. Scholastic Band Association, New York Field Band Conference, Ontario Drum Corps Association, Michigan C.B.A., and Indiana State Music Association.

The Bluecoats, a marching music education organization of 150 young men and women between the ages of 15 and 22, were founded in 1972 as an outgrowth of the Canton Police Boys Club. The Bluecoats own and operate the Champion Event Center, a community bingo, banquet and special events center based in North Canton, Ohio.

The Bluecoats have finished in Drum Corps International’s (DCI) top 12 competitors since 1987. The corps travels more than 10,000 miles each summer and competes in about 30 field contests each season. The organization’s road fleet consists of four leased tour busses, a 53-foot equipment trailer, a 48-foot cafeteria trailer and a souvenir sales vehicle.

The Black Thursday pub is a Scout House extension of a tradition established in the early 1960s by members of the Guelph Royalaires. The event began as a house party following regular Thursday evening practice on the evening before Good Friday, a holiday from work that allowed participants to sleep in after late-night socializing.

Scout House now includes about 100 marching and associate members from more than 20 communities across southern Ontario who have had previous marching arts experience with more than 75 organizations. About half of the current group marched with the original Scout House Band, some as long ago as the 1950s. The organization also includes the Preston Scout House Cadets drum and bugle corps for boys and girls ages 12 to 18, a competitive mini corps and Magic of Scout House, a new winter guard competing in the Northeast Colour Guard Circuit, which features groups from across southern Ontario and upper New York state.

Since its first stage show in 1999, Scout House has performed in more than 450 parades, field shows and concerts in communities across Ontario and Quebec, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Florida, West Virginia and Maryland.

For more information about Preston Scout House Band, contact Activities Director Nancy Weiler at telephone (519) 653-3376, email prestonscouthouseband [dot] adm [at] sympatico [dot] ca or visit the Web site at http://www.scouthouseband.com/