A Drive Up The Interstate; The I-90 Challenge
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(ROSEMONT, Ill.) — Dear Cavalier Nation! As you know, the 2020 drum corps season is not what any of us could have imagined last fall. For example, in a normal year right now we’d be in the stretch of shows that includes the San Antonio, Atlanta, and Allentown regionals - the weeks when the shows and members really meet their full potential and the horse race gets down to the final stretch.
But there is ONE summer tour tradition that continues this week - the Drum Corps Giving Challenge!
This year we have partnered with the Blue Stars for a special edition - The I-90 Challenge. Between July 28th and August 1st, we’re engaging in a friendly contest, asking our friends, alums, and supporters to help us top the Blue Stars as we collectively raise funds to invest in the future activities of our respective organizations. Over the years, this has been one of our most successful funding initiatives, and even with no corps on the field this summer, we hope to make the 2020 Challenge as successful as ever!
For The Cavaliers, our primary areas of investment from this year’s drive are best practices health and sanitation for our programs and, as importantly, a renewed commitment to programs in the Chicago-area, working with Chicago area schools to unleash the potential of the young people in every part of Chicagoland.
On the health and safety front, we know that whenever we are cleared to safely start up again, there will be new requirements of safety and sanitation. Our medical team is already monitoring information from the CDC and others to remain at the forefront of setting policy and practice for our activity. It’s going to require some additional investment in materials that we’re estimating will cost us at least $10,000 to $15,000 for next season.
The other major initiative is in investment in our local area students, especially those with limited means and opportunities for excellence, working with middle and high school leaders to develop programs to unleash those students’ potential the same way that Don Warren and The Cavaliers did for hundreds of Chicago-area teenagers back in the 1940s through the 1970s.
This time of reflection while drum corps is on hiatus - and the national discussion regarding disparities in our society - has made it clear that it’s time to reestablish our organization within our local community. We want to use the skills we have - teaching young people music, movement, and performance - and put them to work to give young people in our own backyards, especially those without the resources to audition or tour with The Cavaliers or Chromium Winds, an opportunity to express their individual excellence with performance opportunities we are uniquely situated to help provide.
We’re asking for another $15,000 to $20,000 to specifically target development of these programs for our Chicago area students, with an ongoing series of workshops and teaching workshops with both students and Chicago area educators happening during the 2020-21 school year in preparation for a roll out in the following school year. These are funds that would be outside of the direct support for our Cavalier and Chromium programs, but will, we hope, have benefits for both programs as we develop the next generation of performers and leaders for both of our national touring ensembles.
DRUM CORPS CHALLENGE starts TODAY, Tuesday, July 28th and continues through this Saturday, August 1st. Requested donations start at just $48, and there are several campaign specific gifts and swag available for those who can help us reach our target - to make your donation, please go to give.cavaliers.org and make your tax-deductible contribution to The Cavaliers organization to help us provide the safest experience possible for the returning Cavaliers and a new world of possibilities for hundreds of Chicago-area students.
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS
The Cavaliers were founded in 1948 from Boy Scout Troop 111 by the late Don Warren. One of the most successful drum and bugle corps in history, The Cavaliers have won 20 national championships, including seven Drum Corps International world championships, since 1992.
The Cavaliers provide a variety of life-changing educational and performance programs for young people that go beyond music and performing arts to build personal accountability, excellence, teamwork and camaraderie. Programs include GearWORKS, Cavaliers Indoor Percussion, Chromium Winds, Crystal Lake Thunder and Midwest Connection.
A 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, The Cavaliers, Inc. is sponsored by the Village of Rosemont, Ill.