More than 4,000 men and women have marched with the Cadets and the organization has planned quite the birthday party for its alumni at the “Cadets Summer Diamond Bash” on Saturday, August 1, in Montclair, NJ. The celebration and concert at Montclair State University, just minutes from the corps’ birthplace in Garfield, will be part of a series of weekend festivities that includes the corps’ Giants Stadium drum corps show the following day.

John Baumfalk, a 91-year-old founding member and first drum major, will make the trip from his California home to be an honored guest at the celebration. Cadets Director George Hopkins credits Baumfalk with beginning what the Holy Name Cadets are today.

And Hopkins wanted to make the anniversary a more spiritual experience for all those who have come before by returning the corps to its original Holy Name moniker this summer.

“That was my idea just in terms of a tribute, I think, to all the people who made this happen -- and not just the corps that won,” Hopkins said. “That’s one of the things that annoys me a little bit about our activity. You know, everybody wants to recognize the 19 Cadet corps that have won, but what about the 56 corps that didn’t? Without them, we wouldn’t be here.”

The special, one-year reinstatement of the name Holy Name Cadets was just the start of Hopkins’ anniversary contribution. Dave Shaw, a baritone for the Cadets from 1950-1958 and who then served three different stints on the corps staff, says Hopkins has energized the alumni behind the celebration.

“They’ve come out of the walls all over  

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She asked me to go and instead provide her a perspective of someone who has been out of the activity for a long time. I agreed to do it and was off.

About 10 hours later, there I was, like “Alice in Wonderland,” at a drum corps show. I had only attended a few local shows in the last 19 years, so this was big stuff for me. The Stanford campus probably has a geographic footprint bigger than the town I live in now. It was both overwhelming and awe-inspiring for me. But, the long and the short of it, the experience would only last for a few hours.

The one thing I hadn’t taken into account was the heat wave that struck California that weekend, soaring into triple-digits. Realizing I couldn’t do what was asked of me from the confines of my air-conditioned car, and anticipating that things could only get worse with health being an issue, I turned around and returned home.

I made that trip back home agonizing about what I would say to my friend and wondering what would be her reaction. When we did make contact, I was very happy, though not fully surprised that she was totally understanding of the whys and wherefores of the weekend. She was willing to forgive me . . . with one small proviso. She changed my assignment by asking me to comment about the differences in the activity in my  

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Last year, we were fortunate to be asked to provide transportation services for the Bell Helicopter -- Armed Forces Bowl, which is held in Fort Worth, TX, at Texas Christian University’s (TCU) Amon Carter Stadium. In particular, we were asked to transport returning soldiers and families from Ft. Hood and Brooks Army Medical Center in Texas to the football game. For those who don’t know, Brooks is where the most seriously burned soldiers receive their care. During this project, we met Mike Nashif of the Combat Warrior Crisis Network (http://www.combatwarriorcrisisnetwork.org).

Mike is a decorated vet, returning from the Iraqi conflict. In talking with Mike, we discovered that he and several other returning vets had started the CWCN for the sole purpose of re-integrating or transitioning the frontline guardians of America from a war environment into everyday life. Two of the CWCN sister organizations are “Take a Soldier Fishing” and “Take a Soldier Hunting.”

After our meeting, our team at Wynne adopted CWCN at the company’s “pet” charity. During the last eight months, we have moved hundreds of returning vets and their families to multiple venues, from fishing at Marble Falls, TX, to last year’s TCU vs. Texas football game in Austin, TX.

As Wynne became more involved with different Drum Corps International units, I became more convinced that a drum corps competition was a perfect  

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