west virginia

I know I haven’t gotten to this thing in two weeks but it is just getting crazy here. I think the B in busy stands for Bluecoats. I am writing this on Tuesday June 22^nd at 12:40 am but may not be posted until I can find some internet. I don’t have internet at the moment because I am on the road traveling from Charleston, West Virginia to Louisville, Kentucky. Yes, that means that the tour has started. The Bluecoats were in their first competition of the season today in West Virginia and they came in 3^rd and played a really good show.

Alright, let me think of some events that have taken place since my last entry. First off, on June 12^th-13^th there was something at Denison that the Bluecoats hosted called The Blue Way. The Blue Way camp is an interactive educational experience for high school/college age kids to get a chance to play with the Bluecoats. It is open to brass, color guard, but mainly the drum line. The reason I say that is because five brass kids showed up, four color guard, and thirty snares! Basically, there were about forty kids who spent two days with us, getting taught by the best staff there is, and playing with members of the Bluecoats. Where I came in was checking everyone in, helping collect forms/money, assigning rooms, making sure everyone got to their destinations all weekend on time, spending the night in the dorms with the kids as an “RA”, and helping place the thirty snare drummers within the actual drum line for the final performance on the second day for all of their parents. As much as that weekend seemed like a huge pain to a lot of people, and was a huge enjoyment for others, all in all it was just a genius fundraiser because I never mentioned the part about how much each kid paid to participate…

The next event was the family and friends of the Bluecoats banquet that just happened on Saturday June 19^th. This event was held at Granville High School which is just a mile away from Denison University. Since so many members in the group are from plenty of other places than Ohio, it was not only a premiere of the show in full uniform but for everyone’s parents who wanted to come out and see their child for the last time for about two months. There was a catered dinner by City Barbeque, a raffle, a silent auction, and as previously mentioned the first full on public performance with marching and music. One of the members of the bass line is from Belgium and he is a really cool guy, his mom and aunt decided to fly in for the family day as a surprise (also first time in America). I picked them up from the airport and although they spoke little English, it was cool to be a part of such an awesome surprise. I really had to help out that day by helping prepare lunch and transport it in multiple van trips to the high school while the members were rehearsing and have it be ready for them by lunch time, it was way more hectic than I made that just sound also. After dinner it wasn’t too bad, I just handed out backpacks to the members that ordered them and stayed late to help clean up the school.

Today was my first time helping out the souvenir crew, well today I was one half of the souvenir crew. It was a lot of fun and really was just a way to throw me head first into one of the marketing aspects of this organization. I’m helping tomorrow again and probably for the week so I will have more on all of that later. It was fun though knowing that not only are we making money on every t-shirt or whatever sold but it is more and more publicity for the group per every item that is sold.

Still early in the season

Since it is still early in the season there are two things that are happening very often. One: New members constantly moving in and paying fees that they owe. Two: Members getting hurt. The two aren't very related but they are just things that are happening right now that won't be happening later in the season.

When a new member is brought here from the airport I have been in charge of checking them in. Which involves them first signing in on their instrument's sign in list, second filling out a form saying which room they are in and me giving them the key, third paying any money that they owe the corps. Alot of them do come in and owe money, they either know how much they owe or I can get on a site that has all their names and balances to see. They can pay with cash, check, or credit card and if it is credit card I have to then write down all of their card information. After they get a receipt from me they have been fully checked in and they can go to their room and then go out to rehearsal. It isn't really that exciting, but I like the OCDness of checking people in, having forms filled out, and getting things done.

Members are getting injured everyday. It isn't a matter of the staff or the instructors beating the kids and it's not a matter of the kids not getting enough to eat, they are just doing alot of hard, challenging work out in the sun. The reason this has to do with me is because if I'm bored I go fill up about 100 ice packs and put them in the freezer. I get calls all the time about taking so and so to urgent care because they tore their groin or because they won't stop having nose bleeds (I know.....awesome). We have to drive the special cases to the chiropractor or the sports medicine specialists. And these are alot of cases on top of what our on staff physical trainer can handle. I bring members to the pharmacy to get their prescriptions filled. One thing that has came full circle for me is this, when I was younger I hated filling out the HUGE emergency medical form packet to give to the school every year but now when someone gets hurt and I have to drive them somewhere really quick......I have to grab those packets and they end up being pretty useful.