The Colorguard

Experience

To the Editor:

Last Saturday was probably our last home show of the Newtown Winter Colorguard. At the least, it will be our last show as active participants, as our last daughter, Amanda, will be graduating this year. This has been a wonderful eight-year experience for us, and both of our daughters. We are still finding it hard to believe it has really been that long.

There have been good times and great times over these years. Oh, there were probably some hard times and bad times, too, but we choose not to remember them. We choose to remember only the great people we might never have otherwise, like Jim Dumas and Kurt Eckhardt; Michelle Hiscavich; the Rosentels, Steve and Judy; Chet Janutolo and the entire Whippie family, and so many more people who would fill pages of this paper. We hope you all know we cherish every memory of our relationship with you, the Guard, the Band and the entire high school music program.

We choose to remember only the first-place championship trophies, carried home in triumph on school buses, coach buses, and caravans of family vans. We will remember the fun, and sometimes funny, adventures on “road trips” to places like The Carrier Dome in Syracuse, regional competitions in Salem, Long Island, and New Jersey, and of course the Colorguard World Championships in Dayton, Ohio.

We have groaned together over hotel rooms filled a foot high in potato chip bags, band hats left behind in hotels, and forgotten or broken equipment. We have laughed, well, after it was over, about a roomful of girls getting locked-in when their hotel room doorknob fell off in their hands. And they were released only after the hotel engineer pried it open with crowbars.

We were both already a little choked up as Amanda received her senior send-off from the guard, so, we were especially unprepared when we found ourselves being mentioned for our contributions to the program over the years. We have never thought of any of the things we have done as work, although some of it was surely hard and strenuous. It has always been a labor of love, and there will be a hole that will be hard to fill for some time to come once this season finally draws to a close in only a few short weeks.

Our greatest hope is that this program should never fade away, but grows and prospers through the years. Students and parents alike must make it their mission to spread understanding of these amazing sports of Marching Band and Colorguard to school and town officials. These are truly art in motion and the sports of the arts. No finer example of selfless teamwork exists in any other inter-scholastic program.

We will never forget our part in this. It’s been a fantastic ride, and we will be saddened when it’s over. Newtown Nighthawks Marching Band and Guard; the embodiment of The Pride of Newtown, and we are proud to have served.

John & Pam Krause

5A High Bridge Road, Sandy Hook                          February 7, 2007