2015 Scout House Black Thursday Pub Night Helps Locals March

Three young marching arts veterans will share more than $700 to help finance their summer drum and bugle corps activities after a night of fun, food and games during the 4th annual Scout House Black Thursday pub night. Pub night organizers invited the three to conduct fund raising games and draws during an evening of fellowship at the Cambridge Knights of Columbus building, the Scout House winter rehearsal facility. Two members of Scout House Band donated their winnings back to the three youth.

Jessica Smith, of St. John’s of Brantford winter guard, Kylie Bradshaw, of the Ventures Winter Guard of Kitchener, will be marching with the Bluecoats of Canton, Ohio this summer. George A. Murga-Martinez, of Hamilton, will be on the contest field with the Colts of Dubuque, Iowa.

Jessica Smith (left) and Kylie Bradshaw will be marching with the Bluecoats of Canton, Ohio this summer. George A. Murga-Martinez will march with the Colts, of Dubuque, Iowa. Photo by Jade Squire

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.

Preston Scout House Band, Inc. is a non-profit corporation incorporated under the Corporations Act of the Province of Ontario on November 29, 1956 with registered charity status, able to issue tax receipts to donors. The Scout House constitutional mandate includes promoting social interaction in the drum and bugle corps community.

Scout House returns about $3,000 to the community annually from donations the Band receives during the year. Applications for two $750 Wilf Blum Youth Music Scholarships are currently being circulated to students in elementary and secondary schools in the public and separate school boards in Waterloo Region. In addition, Scout House regularly performs at no cost to organizers in a number of high profile Cambridge events, including the Preston Canada Day parade on July 1, Warriors’ Day parades and concerts at the Preston branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, and Cambridge Remembrance Day services each
November 11.

The three young people participating in the Black Thursday events are already involved with Bluecoats and Colts.

Bluecoats winter rehearsal camps are winding up as the summer contest season draws closer. 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.

The Bluecoats, who finished second in the 2014 Drum Corps International (DCI) championship contest, are a marching music education organization of 150 young men and women between the ages of 15 and 22, 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 Colts drum and bugle corps is based in Dubuque, Iowa, the smallest city in the United States to host a DCI World Class drum corps. The corps has had four different names since being founded in 1963. Colts’ monthly rehearsals and auditions in preparation for the 2015 contest season began last November and run until June when the summer tour takes them on the road until mid-August. First rehearsal cost is $175, with discounts for subsequent sessions. Summer tour fees are paid in addition to the winter and spring rehearsals costs.

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 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 10 to 18, a competitive mini corps and Magic of Scout House, a new winter guard competing in the Northeast Color Guard Circuit which includes member groups from across southern Ontario and upstate New York.

Since its first stage concert in 1999, Scout House Band 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/