July 27, 2009 at 6:27 pm by THSGEMB

Hello everyone, my name is Emma, and I am going to be a senior at Trumbull High School. This will be my fourth and final year in the marching band. I can’t believe it’s already that time! The first full band practice starts in just two days. I’ve been looking forward to band all summer, as I do every summer. I can’t wait to hear what our show is going to sound like with the whole band performing! I miss band an awful lot this month. I don’t get to see most of the people in band with the exception of my section, the alto saxophones.. There are many changes in our band this season. Everything will be different, especially since I’ll be a senior. Seniors get to lead other bands onto the field at the Classic (our home show), decorate the band room at the Classic and Championships, and more. Most importantly, before Championships, (which will be the last field show for many of us), each of the seniors get to make a speech in front of the band by candlelight in the dark of the chorus room. It’s all very emotional. There are always tears during the speeches and on Championship day in general. I’ve been thinking for a long time about what I’m going to say. Unfortunately, with the anticipation for the coming season, also comes worry. There is going to be construction at our school this year, so our plans for band camp and practices will have to weave around it. Also, I’m naturally worried about how we will do in general. I’m sure the hours of basic marching and playing on the first week of band camp will get everyone into shape. I expect this year to be filled with even more effort and motivation than the last. I’m looking forward to the new as well as the familiar, and to a great senior year.

Emma

THSGEMB

The THSGEMB is a nationally recognized marching band consisting of over one hundred and forty musicians, nearly 30 of them Color Guard. It is the largest school program at Trumbull High School. During the summer and fall, THSGEMB performs under one name known as “Trumbull High School Golden Eagle Marching Band” as all of the musicians and performers in the group collectively come together to perform in competitive regional high school events. In the winter months, the marching band splits into additional programs: the World Winter Guard and Winter A Guard, the Winter Percussion Ensemble, the Jazz Band, Brass Ensemble and Symphonic Band. Among the bands accomplishments this past year include marching in the 2009 Presidential Inauguration Parade. For additional information about THSGEMB, please visit our website at www.thsgembcorp.com

Follow:

Posted in General | 1 Comment

THS Graduation and Barnum Parade from a THSGEMB Bando

June 30, 2009 at 4:23 pm by THSGEMB

We played at the Trumbull High School graduation on June 23^rd. It was pretty fun. It was my first time. I play the tuba and got the chance to join the band as an 8^th grader because of it. I picked a great year to be able to do that because we played in Hollywood, CA in November and the Presidential Inauguration in January. That was something I will always remember but back to the graduation.

We warmed up for the last time in M- 17 the THSGEMB band room. Trumbull High School will begin a major renovation soon and the band room is one of the first parts to be effected by it. The graduation was outside which was interesting because the weather has been really rainy in June. As we walked over, we thought the rain would hold out for another few hours. Not really. As soon as we walked over and got set up, we started playing Pomp and Circumstance. How I hated playing those last 30 measures like 20 times. We had to because there were like 500 plus seniors graduating and the song isn’t that long. In the middle of us playing the never- ending song, it started to rain. It didn’t pour, but it got us pretty wet. After playing Pomp and Circumstance, we played the National Anthem. After that, some people made some speeches. Then the class president, valedictorian and salutatorian made some speeches about what they have accomplished over the past four years. Finally, the house principals called each student’s name. We cheered for all the seniors who were in the band. My older brother was a senior and he WAS graduating but I never heard his name called. Even though I missed it, it was pretty cool to think that the first high school graduation I played was my brothers.

A couple of days after the graduation we played the Barnum Parade in Bridgeport. The parade was long and lots of little strange things happened. It started off like every other parade, but pretty quickly, with every step I took it was like “must stop and rest now.” About half way through, my thigh started to really hurt. I thought I pulled one of my quad muscles. It hurt a lot and I wanted to drop back but before we stepped off, another tuba player, who wasn’t there, had two mouth pieces; one of them was for the tuba I was using, so another tuba player switched to baritone so I could use his. I was thinking about how the other tuba player let me play his tuba so I marched on through the pain. It hurt but I survived. When we finished the parade, everyone was hot and tired. There was an ice cream man near the band equipment trucks. One problem, I didn’t have any money. Then, my bus got stuck in traffic and we have to wait in the sun for an extra 10 minutes. Then, the people on my bus tried to squeeze on the other bus. As we finally got settled on the other bus, my bus came and we went home. What a parade!

Tyler M

THSGEMB

Follow:

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Band Camp footage

June 15, 2009 at 11:57 pm by THSGEMB

The hope is to soon have some pictures from this fall of all of the hard work and fun the the kids are having up at the High School, or Hillcrest where ever they might be on any given hot summer day.

So keep checking back and we will post what we can when we can, and hope that the weather cooperates.

If you want to see a lot of pictures of this year’s camp then click here, you’ll see Hard Work, Fun, The Sun and even some smiles!

You may even find pictures of your friends and family that you never even knew existed, how cool would that be.

But first total credit has to go to the Band’s official phototgraphers for anything related to pictures of the band. We are lucky enough to have a team of unbelieveable talent when it comes to the taking of pictures of the Band, and every parent of the band knows that as do most local papers who are also lucky enough to be the recipient of their generosity. Being the band photographer for Trumbull could be a full time job with the Band’s schedule and all of the events they are lucky enough to participate in, and that also means the band photographers get to take time away from their day jobs to follow “the band” but this team always manages to fit these events in between their day jobs, so enjoy the pix, take nothing for granted, and be grateful for their generosity. I know we all are.

Here are a few random samples for you to enjoy

The Boss, more Pix 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and some cardio

THSGEMB

Follow:

Posted in Band Camp Pix | Add a comment

Trumbull High School Band › The weather cooperated and our Golf Outing was another success on June 29, remember us next spring!

June 11, 2009 at 12:00 am by THSGEMB

Trumbull High School Band › “Wow, Is that Fairchild?” – Well not exactly, but it is my recollection of a course after some rain.

THSGEMB

Follow:

Posted in General | 3 Comments

See you on the green – Barbara Whetstone

June 10, 2009 at 11:49 pm by THSGEMB

The THSGEMB annual Golf Tournament scheduled for Monday, June 29th is really coming along! We found out last night that Stormin Norman from WEBE 108 will be the MC for our event. He is also signed on as a player and is looking for three more to join his foursome. We have a $10,000 hole in one contest that every player is automatically entered into. I would really like to see someone win this prize. Speaking of prizes we have Jets tickets, Mets tickets, golf clubs, golf luggage and so much more. For you food lovers Vazzy’s 19th hole with be providing both lunch and dinner. See you on the green.

THSGEMB

Follow:

Posted in Golf Outing 2009 | Add a comment

Cindy Heitsman’s thoughts

June 10, 2009 at 11:46 pm by THSGEMB

Marching Band Golf Charity Tourney is coming up on June 29, should be a great time, I am hoping for the beer cart position. anyone interested in signing up let me know, and please pass this note on to any Fairfield County Golfers you know. Fairchild Wheeler. Lots of great prizes, mets, jets, hotel, etc. You all know this is a great cause. For some great kids. As you can guess, golfers aren’t coming out of the woodwork this year, we need some help. thanks for all your support. Even if you just post this note onto your own home page it would be an awesome way to spread the word. More Details at thsgembcorp.com.

THSGEMB

Follow:

Posted in Golf Outing 2009 | Add a comment

Here were the topics we hope people will talk about to others

June 10, 2009 at 11:37 pm by THSGEMB

Webmaster Emm Dee’s suggested points to talk about for volunteers who have worked this event already and plan to do more – for the same of our beloved THSGEMB. Here were the topics we hope people will talk about to others

Can you describe all the work that is involved in this type of Golf Fund Raiser event
your frustrations (within reason – remember this is a family show)
what we did right
what we did wrong
what you might try differently next year
what you expect on the day of the event
What you will do if it rains – and why wouldn’t it rain at this point !

Well here are my long awaited responses:

all the work that is involved in this type of event

First let me just say that if you have not run an event like this – don’t even pretend to know how much work that others have to do behind the scenes in the early years of an event like this to make it come off well. To get the tasks identified, to get the prizes and golfers maybe a few local celebrities, and to make sure that for those golfers who show up that it goes really well- and everyone has a great time, is so much work by so many people, that it is hard to explain.. I will try to come back to this point because so much could be written. You have to understand one thing about these events, there are a lot of them now, it is not like 30 years ago when there were just a few in Fairfield County. Now there are Soooo many events by so many good causes and great causes, and questionable causes that I think the novelty is gone, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some great events out there.

your frustrations (within reason – remember this is a family show)

Pass on this one mostly for now – except that this event has taken so much out of me that I will be ecstatic when Monday night, June 29th rolls around, and I am headed on home – done with the event for this year, done for the event forever?

what we did right

We were able to recruit from within the parents so many volunteers that gave so much time and effort into this event that I can safely speak for Frank in saying that the volunteers made this easier than they will ever know. And none of them but one or two even golf ! I’ll say e had six regular volunteers do whatever I asked them to do (and not much of that work was fun) oh yea, other things we did right was get a Hole-In-One contest YEA BABY! – talk Storm’in Norman from WEBE into playing and we concentrated on getting so many good prizes that if all goes as planned, the average golfer will go home with prizes worth well over half of what he or she paid for the event – and he will have been able to play golf, drink beer, eat fabulously, get a tax deduction and stuff our trunks with golf balls, golf clubs, gift certificates. We really did the prizes right this year – yes we did !

what we did wrong

Not Sure – in this type of event you need to start early and we did. I think the Economy played a big part in making this event so hard to attract people this year. After all how can somebody justify spending a couple of hundred dollars if you are not working. So we started earlier than last year by two-three months, had twice the volunteers, and we wanted a hundred golfers this year, we will be lucky to get 66 maybe 68.

what you might try differently next year

Next year I would try a different golf course, and that is no reflection on the current course, but maybe people want to spend $300-$400 and play a country club that they would never be able to play ordinarily. I think next year I would also like to guarantee a better economy so that it will be easier to get the golfers to commit to spending that money. Getting back to my comments from above, I will pick the most fabulous Country Club around and team up with a polysyllabic disease that has the effect of bringing wallets right out of the pockets of people so they can help cure a really good cause and our band will help that cause so the organizations that benefit will be very deserving. I want to make it so that the golfers can play golf at a place that makes them drool when they drive by that golf course. The Connecticut Country Club in Easton comes to mind, there are a few other clubs that might even donate the use of their club on a Monday to allow us to host a cure for some really really bad, bad disease that needs money rasied for it, and I think we are just the organization to make that happen. If you are going to put your few hundred dollars towards a charity event – and deep down people want to play golf now at a a charity related to some disease they can’t pronounce because it has so many syllables and puts little children through such horrible pain, that people in general (people with a conscience) have to play in these events because they truely are once in a year or lifetime type events. We ran our Advertisement in the paper last week, and there were 3 other ads for similar golf events. Ours was the least expensive event, but the other events were not even listing their prices and were playing golf at local country clubs that a golfer only dreams about playing. So maybe they had the right formula, really good causes, really good golf courses, and don’t worry about the money so much.

what you expect on the day of the event

For it not to rain, and everybody to leave the event laughing inside and smiling because they had such a great time.

What you will do if it really rains and thunders – and why wouldn’t it rain at this point !

Cry, and then just move to Seattle, because after all the weather in Seattle right now could not possibly be any worse than it is here in CT this year. So back to the point, I would Cry, Cry, Cry, and then just suck it up and open the bar early since we have already paid for dinner.

Emm Dee

THSGEMB

Follow:

Posted in Golf Outing 2009 | 2 Comments

Golfers Wanted!

May 21, 2009 at 12:07 pm by THSGEMB

We would like to thank the Post for inviting us to be a part of Connecticut News. Very soon we will let the Trumbull High School Golden Eagle Marching Band loose on these pages to begin blogging!

But in the mean time we want to let all of you know what the Parents Association does for a hobby, and we do this as a labor of love because we see the results and rewards as tangible. One of the major things that our Parents Association does throughout the year is to raise funds to cover the additional costs involved with running a competitive High School band. And we think you might find our current Fund Raiser of interest – if you play golf yourself, know anyone else who does and want to have a great time on Monday, June 29th?

Our Golf Outing is put on for a wonderful cause and is a great value – including golf w/cart, lunch, dinner, prizes and so much more.
News Flash – we are offering a Hole-In-One Contest for everyone who plays in this event – and a chance to win $10,000 details on our web site under the Golf Page! or Click Here.
We are a 501c3 Not For Profit Organization, and as such there may be certain benefits if you decided to play in our event.
People who love to play golf are always looking for a good cause and an excuse to play golf with their friends – at our event you can have both.

We invite you to visit our web site where you will see that we are actively recruiting Golfers to play in our Annual Golf Outing on June 29th. Last year we raised over 5K for the THSGEMB with our Golf Outing, and we would like to invite you to come out and join us in the fun this year – all of the details about the event as well as application forms can be found right here: Click Here or just go to our home page at www.thsgembcorp.com

Check back often as we are just getting started! And this is likely the last time you will see anything from the Parent’s Association on the THSGEMB blog, we just thought what we were doing now was too good not to share.

Again, for more information or Application Forms you can go here http://www.thsgembcorp.com/drupal/?q=golf2009

http://events.connpost.com/fairfield-ct/events/show/86769139-trumbull-high-school-golden-eagle-marching-band-annual-golf-tournament-with-holeinone-paying-10k