Midwest Drum Corps Alliance St. Pat's Success.

[Kansan]

The combined efforts of two Midwest Drum Corps Alliance Corps spells success at the Johnson County, KS St. Patrick's Parade Sunday March 14th, 2010.

members of Prairie Sound and The Commanders Drum & Bugle Corps met at the National Guard Armory in Olathe, KS on Saturday March 13, 2010 at 7pm to combine talent for the next days St. Pat's Parade in Shawnee, KS.

We were able to use the Armory for rehearsal and Housing.

On Sunday March 14th, 2010, Seven Members from Prairie Sound and Seven Member from The Commanders Made up the formation.

The formation consisted of 1 Banner Bearer, 2 Color Guard 9 Bugles(all in G) and 2 Drummers for a Formation total of 14 Participants.

Life Happens:

As it seems with all Drum Corps events, life happens and people for one reason or another just can't make it to all events. Two Contra Players were expected, one from each Corps, 1 Drum Major couldn't make it, 1 Drummer from each corps couldn't make it as well as 3 Prairie Sound Color Guard Members leaving us short of our expected 22 Member formation.

We adjusted for the missing personel by using the drummers for commands and pressing an old K-90 Contra into action as Prairie Sound's Contra was with the absent Contra Player and The Commanders Contra was in Tulsa.

We managed to pull everything off in good form with a 4 Soprano Front Rank and Low Brass and MidRange 2nd Rank forming a "Wall of Sound" to Blast the Crowd along the Parade Route.

I rank the attendence as a medium size local small town looking parade. It was overcast and wet with a little misting but no downpours.

The crowd was receptive, however, I think the Parade MC was a little sauced by the time we made it to the Reviewing Stand. He could find our entry form thus didn't read our description as we passed in review. We did have a pretty good 6 ft. x 3 foot banner with Midwest Drum Corps Alliance Hosted by Prairie Sound Drum & Bugle Corps Emblazened so people knew who we were.

Over all this was a fun event that served the purpose of giving both Corps a project to collaborate on and someplace to perform.

The Drum Corps Alliance will have more combined Corps events in the future to make the Alliance Stronger.

If you have a fledgling or fully developed Corps in our region, consider joining the Midwest Drum Corps Alliance efforts.

Thanks,

Jeff,

Prairie Sound!!!

Midwest Drum Corps Alliance!!!