Dr. Phil’s “Blogajawea”

Over 110 performers from around the Northwest joined us yesterday at Southridge High School in Beaverton for the OC Orientation for the 2008 season.  Not only did we have a great turnout, but we have already learned some of our 2008 show, Inner Connections!  See www.oregoncrusaders.org for a video scrapbook from the camp.  Jeff, Travis, Todd, Missy, Chris, Ron, Mike and the whole staff were excited by the level of commitment and enthusiasm of our students. 

In the morning we started with some opening remarks, and I had all the people who were veterans 1 year ago (i.e. had marched 2006 or earlier) and who came to our auditions exactly 1 year ago stand up.  About 5 people stood up.  The crowd applauded because these were the people who believed in us the most.  They invested their time and effort into helping the Oregon Crusaders survive, and become great in the 2007 season.  I then asked all of our veterans who were joining for 2008 to stand.  An additional 35 people stood up.  We’ve gone from having only a handful of veterans to over 40 returning! 

And in addition to all the people (vets and new members) who joined us yesterday, there is another 40 who have signed up to be a part of OC but had a conflict yesterday.  What a great start to the season! 

While we cannot predict the future, I bet that the students who were with us yesterday will tell their friends, and we will have a mighty powerful drum corps this season!

Some pictures from yesterday: