The 2020 Bluecoats are at about 80% of their funding goal, as Fall approaches, in trying to replace lost revenue from a canceled drum corps season and a pandemic-paused Bingo operation. Our drum corps community has helped in large part filled the funding gap. But it’s not the first time the community has come up big for the Canton organization.

In 1976 Bluecoats planned to attend its first DCI Championship week in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. But an outbreak of a contagious disease (sound familiar?) forced the corps to cancel their participation. All eyes turned towards making 1977 the first trip to Championship week. But the difference between the two locations was huge. Philadelphia was a 7 hour trip across Pennsylvania. The host city for 1977 and 1978, Denver, was two time zones and 1,300 miles away. The cost would be significantly more.

The corps was already running fundraisers for the general fund, among those a Heat Raffle, where the corps would pick up a month of your winter home heating bill and a Rock-a-Thon, which saw corps members in rocking chairs for hours at a time to meet pledged donation goals. But the Denver trip was a big cost.

*Co-Founder Art Drukenbrod accepts a check from Post 44 to kick-start the Denver fund.*

One of the earliest sponsors of the corps was American Legion Post 44 in Canton. There were inside connections with the post, as corps director, Tom Jakmides, was also the Post 44 commander. But the support of the American Legion was crucial. They set up a special fund for getting the corps to Denver and advertised it within the American Legion family and the greater Canton area. The fund was slow to get rolling.

As is true still today, Bluecoats had a great relationship with the Canton Repository, the city’s daily newspaper, and as the summer continued and news of the corps continued success was published, it was hoped donations would pick up. The home show Innovations IN BRASS would also serve to help fund the trip to Denver and the media was helpful in promoting the event.

In the end, the corps made its debut in Denver for World Championships and stuck around a little longer to compete in the American Legion National Championships. For its first appearance, the corps finished a respectable 35th out of 158 (in its fourth summer of competition) at DCI and 18th out of 70 at the American Legion contest. In 1978 that would be 28th and 12th! But perhaps the more memorable experience for the members in the latter visit to Denver was a visit to the plush Copper Mountain resort area, courtesy of an alumnus of the Boys Club living in the area.