They’ve Got New Gear, Big-Time Competition

by Earl Chapin
(Sunday Pioneer Press, St. Paul, MN, August 10, 1969)

EAU CLAIRE -- The Eau Claire Boys Drum and Bugle Corps will enter two national competitions this summer. They are the U.S. Open at Marion, Ohio, beginning August 15, and the VFW National at Philadelphia, August 17-20.

This will be the second step in rebuilding an organization which has carried the title “Eau Claire’s Ambassadors of Good Will” in parades and competition throughout the Midwest during the 17 years of its existence.

The smart appearance of the corps in its distinctive uniforms, based on Australian army summer dress with a few refinements added as a feather in the hat and white gloves, its competence and precision, the self-imposed discipline of the members, all have served to make the organization a favorable image of the city it represents. The Corps has often been called “Eau Claire’s finest product.”

The first and key step in rebuilding the organization was finalized last month when the A Corps received new instruments which will enable them to compete on an equal footing with the best in the nation on that basis. The whole family of instruments for a drum and bugle corps was made possible by a gift of $10,000 from the L.E. Philips Charities, Inc., through the efforts of Lou Weinberg, Executive Director.

The instruments are the new G-F rotary horns, on which can be played a chromatic scale. They replace ones now obsolete. Thus equipped, the local A Corps need no longer play second fiddle, or second horn, to any competitor.

The gift has added impetus to the entire organization and started a game of musical chairs through its successive ranks. The former A Corps instruments, converted, have been handed down to the Prep Corps, and the Prep Corps instruments have been handed down to the beginners.

This too, is part of the rebuilding.

The Prep Corps is a feeder for the senior corps. With their new acquisition of old horns, the Prep Corps wil be able to enter Class C competition, and to move into the A Corps with greater facility. At the same time, the beginners, 9 to 11, are outfitted to more quickly make their way toward the top.

Currently the corps numbers 110 boys, with 55 between ages 14-21 in the A Corps.

“We have the quality. What we need is numbers,” said John Amundson, business manager and assistant executive director of the corps. “We can now start a brand new beginners corps, ages 9 to 11. As they qualify, we will move them up to the Prep Corps. And fully outfitted with their new-old instruments, the Prep Corps can now be entered in Class C competition.”

Enthusiastic about the Philips Charities gift, Amundson said, “It has given us the opportunity to compete with the best and that opportunity spreads enthusiasm throughout the entire corps and will bring us more members. If we have more members in the field, we can put on a better show. A Corps needs competition to thrive. We have lost boys because of the lack of it.”

The Eau Claire Boys Drum and Bugle Corps is a way of life and a dedication on the part of its instructors, members and their parents.

For the boys it means rehearsal in one form or another four nights a week. They are on the road practically every weekend. Each year junior and senior members travel some 10,000 miles to perform in a five-state area of the Midwest. They are transported in two 20-year-old buses acquired three years ago through money raised by the parents and an assist by L.E. Philips, Eau Claire industrialist. Boys’ fathers act as bus drivers, and several fathers keep the buses in running condition.

The buses may travel all night to reach their destination. The corpsmen and their mothers, who go along as uniformed members and active chaperones, catch their sleep en route. Organizations sponsoring the events at which the corps appears usually provide lodging, but the boys take sleeping bags along, just in case. They furnish their own spending money.

The regimen of being a corpsman allows for little other outsiude activity.

Discipline has always been a hallmark of the corps. A seven-member corps council, elected by the boys, sets up rules of conduct. Clothes worn on trips out of town must be clean and neat. No beatnik types are allowed. No one under 16 is permitted to smoke. From 16 to 18, they must have an okay from their parents. Courtesy and good appearance are the corps’ watchwords.

The Parents Organization of the corps is the driving force behind the corps and upon it falls the monumental task of raising money to keep the whole effort going. Like the Red Queen, they have to run as fast as they can to stay where they are. They have to run faster than that to keep up with inflation.

The corps receives no assist from any community fund. Since its inception, the Parents Organization has struggled along raising needed money through work projects such as selling light bulbs and fire extinquishers, assisted now and then by donations from businesses and industries.

In spite of their efforts, the Parents Organization can “raise hardly enough to cover the bare necessities,” said Amundson, who has a son in the Prep Corps. “It is not enough to pay the staff, who are dedicated people. We are looking for a way to supplement our budget in the face of rising costs.”

LaMont Page is executive director and horn instructor, a member of the corps when it was organized in 1953, and with it since, except when he was in the Marine Corps.

Keith Stolberg, of Galesville, is the A Corps director and in charge of marching and maneuvering. Assistant horn instructor is Allen Kjarsgaard, a music major taking a graduate course at Eau Claire State University. Mark Werlein, raised in the corps, has taken over the drum instruction of the A Corps in the absence of Mike Brown, hospitalized by an automobile accident. He is working on a college music major.

Del Grorud, also raised in the corps, is assistant marching and maneuvering director. Mark Van Heiden, a former A Corps director, is working with the Prep Corps on marching and maneuvering. Drum major is David Ambers. Prep Corps drum major is Bill Howard.

The corps came about through the vision and energy of Walt Brown, who retired in 1968. It was Brown whose drive, determination and whole-hearted effort, coupled with the help of parents and boys, won for the corps fame and recognition in a five-state area.

What are the profits of all this toil and dedication?

“They are many,” said Amundson, “and all in benefits to the boys.

“They meet new people and get a whole new outlook on life. They learn to think for themselves and at the same time, to think and act as one. They learn responsibility, to carry their own weight lest they let the other boys down. They learn to be good winners and good losers; they learn the importance of teamwork.”

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