When I did a feature on Blue Saints Drum and Bugle Corps for their 72nd anniversary, I was inspired by the work they do, bringing music back to the community and doing so in a way that is accessible to youth, no matter their background.
Now, after heading out for a Sudbury.com Staff Tries video at their sleepover Corps camp on April 12, I know I can get a sound from a tuba, I know the tuba I played is actually called a contrabass bugle but I’m still going to call it a tuba and also, that I say amazing far too many times for one adult human.
However, I had a blast, and I hope you have as much fun watching as I did trying out the instruments. Big thanks to Sudbury.com’s associate editor, Heidi Ulrichsen, for videography.
Blue Saints Drum and Bugle Core is the fifth oldest junior drum and bugle corps in North America and the oldest in Ontario, a part of Sudbury since 1952.
Featuring a brass line and a drum line, as well as a colour guard, the corps is about to start competing again after a ten year hiatus, and trust me, they are not asking me along for the ride. I was barely able to play, let alone march. I struggle to walk in and of itself, let alone any kind of additional actions.
But these kids had been practicing each week, and were camped out — and I mean literally camped, with luggage and sleeping bags filling the rooms of the Montessori School of Sudbury where it was held — and instructors came in from as far as Toronto to teach the kids.
Blue Saints Drum and Bugle Corps is open to youth 10-21, and as Rachael DiCarlo, volunteer and parent told Sudbury.com, all kids need to bring is a bottle of water and an open mind.
That’s because instruments are available with no rental cost, and the teaching is free. If you want to travel with the corps, the funds are kept as low as possible and the volunteers often cook nutritious meals for the journey.
If you’d like to find out more about the Blue Saints Drum and Bugle Corps, you can visit their Facebook page here.
If you’d like to see me play a tuba and a bass drum, as well as make an idiot of myself, check out our latest Sudbury.com Staff Tries video above.
Jenny Lamothe is a reporter with Sudbury.com