Best use of the $1million

[Super Don-O]

I love Drum Corps as much as anyone here, but given the choice of spending a million bucks on either:

1) a soup kitchen and delivery trucks for the homebound elderly

2) a homeless or battered women's shelter

3) a health clinic in a poverty-stricken neighborhood

4) a new indoor facility for a drum corps and other music education purposes

The drum corps doesn't even make the top 3 in my eyes.

[Schickmeister]

Maybe not back in the day....but drum corps today is absolutely a luxury.

Over the 7 years I marched, in tour fees alone (not including camp fees, travel, etc.) I spent about 20,000. You tell me what teenager has those kind of funds around.

[MikeN]

OK I've got it. Sleeping on Gym floors and busses and rehearsing from 10 to 16 hours every day is a "luxury". Too bad you get charged for it.

I hate to say it, but yeah, it really is a luxury. It's just touring band camp, or the equivalent of summer musical. It's a really *hard* band camp / summer musical, but it's about the same in the grand scheme of things.

Not to say I don't love it, and I do think drum corps does a ton of good for folks, but some of these others... yeah, corps is hard to compare.

Mike

[dbc03]

OK I've got it. Sleeping on Gym floors and busses and rehearsing from 10 to 16 hours every day is a "luxury". Too bad you get charged for it.

Absolutely it is a luxury. It is absolutely ridiculous to say that marching drum corps is not a luxury.

Not sure what you are trying to argue with the "too bad you get charged for it" part considering luxuries generally aren't free.

[MikeN]

Of course, now that I've shot my mouth off - can someone post what their ideas are from the videos? Some of us have Facebook blocked on their server. :( Crown wants to build a PAC, yes?

Mike

[ST_Lawson]

Colts Plan, from their Facebook page:

"Our big idea has two parts: expand our music education programs to serve more young people and provide mobile kitchens and support vehicles that we will share with the American Red Cross.

Part One - We create an Endowment Fund that will allow us to never charge fees to any student in our ensembles for disadvantaged youth and to provide scholarships for needy students to allow them to participate in our intensive summer ensembles. It will also allow us to fund new after school and summer teaching positions and programs to ensure that music education is always available for at-risk and disadvantaged kids.

Part Two - We will purchase two new, fully outfitted mobile kitchens each capable of serving over 5,000 meals per day. Our touring youth ensembles will use these vehicles for 10 weeks each summer. During the remainder of the year these mobile kitchens will be made available to the Red Cross at no cost to them to use, operate or transport to aid in disaster response anywhere in the US."

(me speaking now)

So, part 1 doesn't actually have anything to do with the World Class corps, it's helping the smaller, more community focused ensembles. Part 2 technically is helping the main corps, but for most of the year, the new cooktrucks will be used by the Red Cross to feed people in disaster/needy situations. They're not buying new horns, buses, uniforms, etc.

[MGCpimpOtimp]

You can give the man the fish, or you can teach the man the work ethic that gets him out there working his arse off every day to catch fish, doing it better and more efficiently each time, then watching him turn around and teach OTHERS how to catch the fish.

I believe it goes "You can give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, or you can teach him how to fish, and ruin a great business opportunity."

Edited January 13, 2010 by MGCpimpOtimp

[ST_Lawson]

The other three corps plans are as follows (from their facebook pages, for people who can't access facebook):

Carolina Crown

The Issue

Performing arts programs are being cut in our area and they only survive because of parent organizations raising money for their essential needs. Carolina Crown wants to help young people achieve even more!

Why is Music Education Important?

Did you know?

Music Education is Associated with Higher Education: 65% of those with a HS education or less participated in performing arts; 81% with some college participated; 86% with a college undergraduate degree participated; and 88% with a post graduate degree participated.

Did you know?

Fortune 1000 CEO’s Success Tied to Music Education. Harris Interactive has released a poll analyzing the effects of music education on top

Fortune 1000 company executives: 73% of the executives were involved in a music program; 77% recommend their children get involved in music education; 47% support music education by donating money. Cumulatively, the longer that executives participated in music programs, the more successful they became in life.

The Plan

“The Carolina Crown Performing Arts Training Center”

- Build a training facility for young performers of all ages, ethnicities and economic backgrounds to attend and receive the highest possible education.

- Provide individual lessons to nurture and advance their abilities.

- Provide the best instruments and equipment available for them to use.

- Have the ability to educate, feed and house all in one building.

- Give individuals, schools and national touring companies the ability to use state of the art multi-purpose rehearsal space.

- Have a theater large enough to hold concerts and recitals.

$1MM would make this dream come true, not only for Carolina Crown, but for the many young people that will excel in all aspects of their lives through our programs.

The Outcome

We would use the grant from Chase as seed money to build:

“The Carolina Crown Performing Arts Training Center”

- Create a new performance group that could tour internationally and get more young people involved.

- Realize additional new programs we cannot afford to start.

- Create greater depth of our current programs within our region.

- Attract more corporate funding to reach more young people.

- Most importantly, create more opportunities for young people to succeed in life, based on the facts provided in the “Music for All/Harris Interactive” poll by helping more young people further their education and achieve at a higher level in life!

With $1MM we can easily achieve this outcome and give countless young people the chance to develop lifelong excellence through a superior and challenging arts education experience.

[ST_Lawson]

Cavaliers

The Issue

Dedication. Creativity. Discipline. Teamwork. The foundation for individual excellence and organizational success is built on these traits, skills learned by young people who are dedicated to excellence in sport, dance, and the performing arts. Yet in this day of shrinking community and family budgets, access to professional instruction is endangered, particularly for young performers in high-risk households. They have potential and desire; what they need are committed instructors and an organizational framework that encourages - and demands - individual excellence and team leadership. And few organizations have a better track record of providing that direction than The Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps. Since founding in 1948, this 23-time national champion organization has taken thousands of young people and developed them into champions, both on the field of competition and in their careers, from education to entertainment, engineering to business, medicine to the US military.

The Plan

The Cavaliers recently expanded their music and leadership program to include a program for teen percussionists wanting to learn “the Cavalier way.” This ensemble performs at clinics and in competitions across the Midwest, instructed by some of the best young teachers in the area, many of them alumni of The Cavaliers. With the Chase grant, we would expand this program to include brass players and dancers/color guard, more than TRIPLING the number of area students in the training program. We would also invite area educators to learn from our professional staff, teaching them the methods that built The Cavaliers success. The grant would increase financial aid for low-income students, and increase the number of instructional/inspirational clinics performed for Chicago-area students. Members would be recruited from throughout the area, with special recruiting efforts aimed at students from economically disadvantaged areas, students without access to professional arts instruction.

The Outcome

The expanded Green Thunder Program will allow us to increase the annual number of participants in The Cavaliers programs to up to 300 students per year, put special emphasis on recruiting from areas of Chicago that have been hard hit by arts education cutbacks, expand our operation to include many new participants from our region, increase opportunities for professional development of our instructional team and Chicago-area educators who work with us, greatly increase the number of school students impacted by our clinics, and increase the potential for Green Thunder members to successfully audition for our national touring corps. As with The Cavaliers themselves, participants in Green Thunder will be learning from some of the best music, arts, and movement instructors in the business, learning not just how to play their instruments, but learning how to LEARN, how to TEACH, and how to LEAD, the core skills members of The Cavaliers have been learning – and teaching – for over 60 years.

[ST_Lawson]

Phantom Regiment

The Issue

Our community, which is among the nation’s worst in unemployment, struggles to fund the arts. With so many challenges to face, the arts are not a priority in our schools. Budget cuts have limited the access children have to music and other arts and, in many cases, those classes have been deemed extracurricular, forcing students to make choices among clubs, sports and arts. Studies have shown that students who participate in music excel in core academics. A 2001 analysis by the College Entrance Examination Board showed that students with courses in music appreciation scored an average of 63 points higher on the verbal and 44 points higher on the math portions of the SAT than students without a music background. Allowing young minds the creativity and discipline they obtain from the arts opens up a new world for them, and we believe it’s important to provide students a well-balanced curriculum that encourages them to consider myriad careers, such as science, medicine, law – and music.

The Plan

Phantom Regiment wants to make sure every child in the Rockford area gets introduced to music, including the mentally or physically challenged. Among the programs we’d like to provide:

1) Hands-on intro to music instruments in elementary schools;

2) Expand our summer camps to include general music and dance instruction as well as day camps for children;

3) Summer band for teenagers;

4) Private lessons for those desiring advanced instruction;

5) Partner with an organization such as Special Olympics to offer music and dance.

Since many children in our community have parents who are struggling financially, we want to offer scholarships for those in need. In addition, we would use the organization’s world-renowned drum and bugle corps as an example of how rewarding music and dance can be, encouraging more students to participate in their school programs. Once these programs are established, we believe the obvious benefits will allow the programs to be funded by traditional means.

The Outcome

The effects of increasing arts offerings would do wonders not only for the community as a whole but also for the students individually. While studies have proven that music enhances our intellectual abilities, successful people note the real-world importance of music to our lives: “Music has a great power for bringing people together. With so many forces in this world acting to drive wedges between people, it's important to preserve those things that help us experience our common humanity,” said Ted Turner, founder of CNN. Bill Clinton said, “Music is about communication, creativity and cooperation and, by studying music in school, students have the opportunity to build on these skills, enrich their lives and experience the world from a new perspective.” In the end, we want to be able to provide opportunities as well as raise the awareness for how important the arts are to the growth and development of our young people. These are programs that we want to implement immediately.