Do you have a story for Fanfare about a family member (either yours or someone else's) who made or makes an impact with a corps? Please send it to boomike@dci.org. Dylan Mersinger submitted the following. When you have siblings, you always end up having the same teachers in the same school. But for me, the one thing we shared is drum corps. With my brother Max marching as a euphonium palyer with the 2003 Carolina Crown and my sister Jessie marching as a trumpet player with the 2005 Magic of Orlando, it only seems natural that I would also march. I went to my first drum corps show at the 2003 DCI World Championship Finals in Orlando, which was close to my home. Seeing my brother out there on finals night was really something. My next show was in 2005, where my sister marched in Magic of Orlando's Night of Magic, the corps' home show before leaving on tour. The amazing melodies of the horn line, the pounding of the drums and the movement in the guard enraptured me. After my first season of high school marching band, I decided it was time for me to take my turn in the line and march in a corps. When my siblings came home from tour, besides admiring their amazing tan, I noticed they were better people. They worked harder; they were more disciplined and had become amazing marchers, which I learned when I marched in my school's band with my sister. I always watched the Drum Corps International World Championships broadcast on television and couldn't wait until it was my time to march. This season I will put on the teal and black uniform of the Teal Sound from Jacksonville, Fla., marching as a euphonium player just like my big brother. It's my turn for the long bus rides and the seemingly endless hours on the field rehearsing. But it's also my time to experience the pride walking off the field of the last show, knowing there isn't anything humanly possible I could have done to make things any better. The following is from Rob Dunnington, a former member of Dutch Boy. In 1971, the Dutch Boy Cadets went from an all-male corps, to coed. We had been a corps of about 33 members the year before. Along with the new members, came a new set of helpful parents. These parents not only followed the corps, they helped out on the equipment truck, fixed instruments and even cooked when we were away for a couple of days. After a season of hearing these parents cheer for us, I had to get to know them. I became friends with their kids. The parents were good people and I quickly began to like them, not only for their support but for their friendship as well. Whenever we had a problem or concern, they were there to talk with us and help us. We also had a couple of mothers who were nurses, which really helped when it came to helping with medications some of the kids had to take. Most parents that love traveling with the corps did so at their own expense. As far as I know, none ever asked for gas money, even though the price of gas in the mid 1970s was extremely high. They did what they did because they wanted to do it. There was one time when three of our members had to go to summer school. When they were finished, one of the parents volunteered to bring them to join the rest of us. Here some 30 years later, most of the kids in the corps are married and now have our own kids, many of whom are currently in the corps. I see the tradition of parents following the corps continuing, just like it had for us. Even today, when I meet one of these great people, we stop and talk about the good old days and all the fun we used to have. The memories and the friendships we had are still deeply engraved in our brains.

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