This website last updated: Wednesday, April 30, 2008
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Welcome to the Sunrisers Drum and Bugle Corps Alumni website!Hit CTRL+D to bookmark this site! Please note ... This web site looks best in a modern, standards-compliant browser, e.g. the latest versions of Mozilla/Firefox, Opera or Safari (Mac). I have made some minor adjustments for Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 6 or later), but its inadequate support for standards imply certain limitations. Please consider switching your browser to one of those known to be "compliant." Your online experience will be much more enjoyable. Mission statementObviously, the main mission of this site is to help maintain relationships within the Alumni of one of the greatest Senior corps ever to take the field - the "Long Island Sunrisers" and it's later iterations in New Jersey and upstate New York. Many of us have been friends for over 30 years and will hopefully remain friends forever. Some of us have become reaquainted with people we marched with long ago and for various reasons lost contact with. Through our Alumni Forum, many new friendships have been formed and old friendships renewed. Though our beloved "Sun" may not have the long history of some senior drum corps, our spirit is every bit as big. We also want to give the newest Sunrisers an idea of the legacy of the corps. Then there is a second and equally important purpose to this new venture - to finally form a strong support base for the Sunrisers competing field corps as it exists today in the DCA's "all age" format. There is no denying Sun has been down the last few years as far as numbers - but the spirit remains as strong as ever with a base of young members who care deeply about the legacy of greatness they have inherited. The Alumni is extremely proud of the effort this younger generation of Sunrisers has put forward in the face of problems that a lesser group would have given up on. Latest Updates!
A Double- Invite!!! Please mark this date in your calendar! Saturday May 31st 2008 11AM Fairlawn NJ – Our annual Bowlathon at Brunswick Fairlawn Lanes in Fairlawn NJ. Directions to the site to be announced. 2PM - Our annual Alumni/CompetingCorps Picnic – to be held at a nearby park in Fairlawn NJ, location and directions to be announced. 1. Bowlathon - Join us for a fun time and help raise funds for the Sunrisers at the same time. We encourage all alumni to team up with us and the ranks of our Competing Corps in our Pledge Drive and then to bowl with us on May 31st. Simply spend the next several weeks finding sponsors for your own bowling efforts and then bowl with us on the 31st – before our picnic. Essentially, your sponsors choose "per pin" or "flat rate" amounts. You bowl three games with us. The forms explain everything. Or, - if you don't wish to bowl (we hope you will!) please consider sponsoring one of our bowlathon participants, whether it be an alumnus or a corps member. Send an email to bowlathon@sunrisers.com to let us know what you would like to do. Again, we hope you'll participate. It'll be fun. 2. Annual Alumni - Competing Corps Family Picnic – The picnic will be in the area of the bowlathon. One of the Bergen County parks. (Van Saun Park, or one in Glen Rock) The details will be sent soon, we are in the process of securing the proper permits and finalizing the details After the great picnic we all had last year the idea was raised among alumni association that for 2008 we would use the day to support the competing corps by reducing the need for them to cover the food and prep costs for the day. Last year several Competing Corps and Alumni agreed to bring small amounts of food and picnic items with them to supplement the purchases made by the corps proper and this worked out really well. The picnic this year will be a covered dish affair. To help save the CC the expense of supplying the food and prep we'll all bring food and other picnic fare. We'll post a web page showing the items we need and who is bringing what. In the meantime think of what you can bring, we are going to need all picnic fare items such as: Hot dogs, hamburgers, paper goods, grills, soda, ice, etc. A more complete list to follow on the web, this is just a head up. Picnic email:SunAlumPR@gmail.com
It is my sad duty to report to all of you that Bob Murphy's mom Mildred passed away Tuesday afternoon. So many of the older members of the Sunrisers new both of Bob's folks, and share his loss. Mildred Murphy will be waked at... Hours: Mass will be served at St Francis De Sales Roman Catholic Church (The church is on South Ocean Avenue, 1/4mi. south of the railroad tracks.) My personal condolences to Bob at this terrible time. I'm sure you will all join me in sending Bob our thoughts and prayers.
I put a new page on the "Our Sun Stories" link that I somehow have ovewrlooked during my recent (and continuing) health issue, that being a page of "tributes" as it were to the legendary Marty "Stan" Roche, "Mr. LOUD". Also, thanks to alumnus John Devlin, I have added a few pics of Tom "Bunyon" McCarthy in competition alongside the one and only John "Screech" Arietano, and thanks this time to the redoubtable Frank Dorrittie for a few pics he sent to me from the 80's. They can be found on the "Sun Pics" page from the main menu.
Jim Dyckman, Sunrisers Director of Operations, has announced that the Sunrisers will not field a corps in DCA competition in 2008. The complete official announcement is HERE.
The Sunrisers mourn the loss of yet another friend. I learned today that French Horn player extraordinaire Dennis Plante has passed away. Dennis passed away at home in Rhode Island of a respiratory disease, way too young still to leave us. Dennis was a fixture of the early 80's French Horn section and also played lead soprano for a time. He is a member of the Sunrisers Hall of Fame Class of 2002, and will be missed by his legion of friends among the Sunrisers organization for his dedication, which included driving all the way from Rhode Island to rehearsals, good nature, and friendliness. Rest in Peace, Dennis. A Dennis Tribute page is HERE. Email me to add your thoughts.
As you all are aware, this past saturday night was the occasion of Sun's "Lucky Sevens" racket in Levitown. For those who may not be regular visitors of the Alumni Forum, I thought I'd take a few to let everyone know how things went! I think it would be fair to say the event was a roaring success. Speaking personally, of course, but the impression I got from everyone was they had a great time, the food was great (especially the roast beef and roasted potatoes! yum!), and the rendition of our classic "Battle Hymn (more on this in a bit) was probably the best I personally have ever heard. So what happened? Who was there? Who wasn't! I can't begin to list everyone in attendance, but there were alumnus from 4 decades present, including many I only knew through the Forum and never had the chance to meet in person - such as Patty Bauer and her husband Chris, Dawn Marie (sorry I missed your last name), Danny Burushkin, and others too numerous to list. Attendees I knew but hadn't seen in maybe 35 years, like Nat Mazyk, were there, as well as many like Gene Bennett who I haven't seen in 5 or 6 years. Great to see all the fellow "old farts" from the 60's - though too many of us are now physically "challenged" in one way or another! It was great to spend time again with Nat, Tony & Donna White, and legendary Solo-Sop Bob Murphy and wife (and Sun Alumnus) Laurel. The music. Ahhh... the music! Tom Willms led all in a very spirited "Battle Hymn" near the end of the night (for some). Members from 4 decades of Sun, together as one in voice, in what Bob Murphy noted was sung in 6 part harmony! Almost a spiritual experience. Even the guys from the post serving dinner applauded vigorously. Gary Williams then fired up the old Animal Bus and led us into members personal songs, starting with Nat Mazyk, who was in attendance. Eating. Drinking, eating some more. (How many pieces of cake did you actually eat, Nat?) And then such Sun classics as "IYM". Got a little rowdy:) I can only try to imagine what the VFW members in the bar next door were thinking while all this was going on! Dave China was in charge of Media, and was running videos of the championship years on a wall from his laptop. Uber cool! Gary Williams speechified well deserved kudos to Larry V, Billy D, and Stan (yes - of course Stan was there!) for their help in making winners out of an inexperienced and young corps last year. As it happened, I - along with Patty and Chris, Gary, Ray, and who knows who else were hiding in the bar - wound up closing the joint at around 3:00AM and forgot the clocks went ahead and it was actually 4:00AM! Latest I've been out for some time, and I felt it Sunday for sure. All in all ... a terrific night, and I was glad I managed to make it. But let me tell you ... drinking diet soda at a Sun racket really SUCKS! If anyone else has any personal recollections of the event they'd like to share - feel free to email me! Next event coming up will be the Alumni picnic sometime in June. Mark your calendars (I promise more lead time will be forthcoming for that event) and be sure to join us!
It is my sad duty to inform my fellow alumni that we have lost another of our Founding Members. On January 11, 2008, original Sunriser Sal Cutino passed away. I'm trying to get a picture of Sal to post here, but wanted to get the word out asap. Sal's son Mike and I marched together as Lead Sopranos in the Bellmore Thunderstreaks back in 1963/64 before I joined the Sunrisers. My personal condolences to Mike and his family - as well as that of the Competing Corps and all alumni are extended. The details I have so far are:
There are now 50 pictures of the annual Sunrisers banquet - held this past Saturday, November 24 - posted on the Sun Pictures page. My thanks to alumnus Milt Fitzgerald for both taking the pics and then sending them on to me so I can post them for all to see. I hope to have quite a few more soon.
Alumnus Jaime Bartushak sent along a Christmas picture of himself with his family - wife LeeAnn, daughter Catherine, and son Jake. Great looking family, Jaime! 
Charter member and valuable resource Bill Costello was kind enough to send me some additions and corrections for the Sun History page - for which I am deeply grateful! I am in the process of making the changes Bill advised me of, and they will be online soon. I currently have some personal issues taking up most of my time that should be resolved in a week or two. Thanks again, Bill! Also, I have gone and moved the once "hidden" special files area into the Main Menu to make it easier for people who may not be as advanced with computers to access. The page will periodically be updated or extended with files "other than" the freeware files on the Resources page.
2007 Drum Corps Associates Class "A" World Champions - the Sunrisers!Congratulations to the competing corps for one of the most memorable comebacks in drum corps history. From picking up the pieces of the corps to building a new Board of Directors, this years Sunrisers have done themselves and the Alumni proud by winning 4 major captions tonight in Rochester, NY at the Drum Corps Associates World Championships! Final score was an outstanding 83.998. Following the blow by blow description of the Finals, it was obvious the crowd knew something special was happening with a small but dynamic hornline blowing the doors off the place in a clean, well executed performance. Be proud - be loud! The Drumline reminded many of the "Wall of Sound" drumline from 83 with an equally outstanding performance, and the Guard capped it all off with what all acknowledged to be a superior performance. The Caption results: Class A High Brass - Sunrisers On behalf of the Alumni, WELL DONE and congratulations on a superlative job tonight. You've worked incredibly hard this year and deserve every moment of your glory. To the Board of Directors ... what can be said but "Thank You" for stepping up to the plate and giving these youngsters hope, and the chance they needed to fulfill their legacy. To "retired" Sunrisers Meiko Hedling, Larry Visconti (Drum guy!), Marty "Stan" Roche, John Clougher, Billy DiPaolo, Danzan "Danny" Buruschkin ... no words can express my personal admiration for the job you did by stepping into the hornline and leading by example. And not to forget Ray Yenshaw - stepping in when needed as Assistant DM. Great job all! Lastly, to the younger members of the Sunrisers, who accomplished something nobody thought you had a chance in hell of doing ... THANK YOU for bringing all the good feelings back to the Alumni. You stuck it out, stuck with Sun because you are true Sunrisers when others packed it in for greener pastures (they thought). Now you have something nobody can ever take away from you for the rest of your lives ... you are World Champions! Was it worth it? You bet your butt!Pictures will soon be posted, along with some of the commentary from the Press Booth during the show.
I have just been informed by Sun alum Patty (Cicchino) Bauer that her dad has lost his battle with cancer and passed away peacefully Monday night. The sincere condolences of the Sunriser alumni and entire organization go out to Patty at this sad time.
The sincere condolences of the entire alumni and competing corps go out to Robyn (Forbes) Guillen on the loss of her dad Adam M. Forbes early in the morning of July 27. Robyn is a Sun alumni (95-97-Pit; 98-Sop) and wife of Brass Coordinator/Show Coordinator Rich Guillen. Our continuing thoughts and prayers are with Sun alum Fran Haring and critically ill wife Barbara - who thankfully is making a slow but sure recovery from a major stroke a few weeks ago.
Celebrating America's Birthday! Milton "the Bug" Fitzgerald comes through with a new story for the "Our Sun Stories" page!
The Sunrisers have lost yet another longtime member in May. We are saddened to learn that original Sunriser member Don Trayer (no picture available) passed away on May 17 in Margate, Florida. Don played cymbals "back in the day" - meaning the 50's and early 60's. My apologies for the delay in posting this information - I have been pre-occupied lately and misplaced the notification. The sympathies of the entire Sunrisers organization go out to Dons family.
The Sunrisers organization mourns the loss of yet another alumnus. On May 29, 2007, drumline stalwart Steven "Wayne" Ford left the field of competition for the last time. Wayne passed suddenly of a heart attack at the too young age of 57. He was a tireless supporter of the alumni and the competing corps and will be remembered fondly for his dedication to the corps. He will indeed be missed. The deepest sympathies of the Sunrisers and Sunrisers Alumni go out to Waynes family.
I have been offered the contents of the competing corps websites "Sunrisers Online" area, which contains some info on 145 Sunrisers Alumni members by Dave China. I have accepted the offer, and will begin collating the material and writing new code for the additions soon. This will take a while, though, since I have surgery coming in 2 weeks and will be offline for a week or two while recuperating. Stay tuned. I'd like to voice my appreciation to those who have been hitting this site pretty hard the last month or so. Lots of page hits registered, which is good! Hope you all are enjoying your visits. And just a reminder that input for the Sun History and Our Sun Stories pages has been seriously lacking lately. Please take a few minutes and jot something down and send it to ne as a text, DOC, RTF, or WP file. Without your input, the site will stagnate!
By request, added the 1983 full show to the Sun Sounds page.
The following Full Shows are now online and available on the Sun Sounds page:
I have removed the list of the Sunrisers 2007 Board of Directors from the page, as well as the Instructional Staff page. Reason being the sunrisers.com website is being revised, and all material related to that site is better served there. This website was started as a gathering place for Sunrisers Alumni and will confine itself to that purpose, although I will retain the link to the sunrisers.com donations page. That site is a totally separate entity in which I have no input. As I frequently state, this site relies on input from Sunrisers Alumni, i.e., YOU. I don't have all the information this site could offer in my head. If I don't get it from you - It will not be here. Does it need saying that since my last request I have gotten only TWO responses to my request for your personal Sun Stories or additions to the Suns History page? Very disappointing, though not entirely unexpected.
I have finally finished converting and validating the Pictures and Resources pages over to CSS format. The only thing you should really notice is improved loading speed for all pages on the site, which equates to lower cost to me for bandwidth charges each month. That's a good thing! The only page left to work on now is the Sun History page - which as I said will probably be a "work in progress" as I learn new things about the history of the corps. That - again - depends on you to supply me with whatever you know personally! If you don't let me know - I can't put it online for everyone else to know. Very simple, no? And once again I have to ask you to please send me a story or two of your "Sunriser memories."
The Sun Sounds page has now been completed in CSS to conform with the rest of the site, validated, and is online. You should notice an immediate improvement in loading time.
The rewrite of the Sunrisers History page is now underway. So far I have completely restructured the page, and set the look I wanted. The history is by no means done (and likely never will be), and should be considered a "work in progress" as I wait for contributions from members and other bits of information to find there way to me. Concerning the Sunrisers Message Forum; I have stepped back for a while to focus my attention on some personal health issues, this site, my personal website, and my Blog. Assistant Administrator Tony White is taking care of things in my absence (however long that will be) ... so if you need board passwords or any help getting around, please email or PM him by clicking on his name anywhere you see it and then click on the "send personal message" link.
I should mention, if you are having trouble getting on the Message Forum, it is probably because I was forced to change all the passwords because of a situation involving another corps members and staff trying to access our private spaces. Unfortunately it "appears" that former or current members of the Sunrisers gave the passwords to unauthorized people. Other reasons have resulted in it now being mandatory that you Register for the forum. To keep problems or inconvenience to a minimum - email verification is no longer required so you can get right on the forum immediately. Please email or PM me or Tony White to get your passwords. Keep in mind the caveat on the registration page that you MUST use your full, real name as either your "username", your "display name", or in your signature. I'd be happy to help you if you don't know how to edit your profile to comply.
The entire Sunrisers organization was shocked and saddened to learn of the sudden passing of one of it's greats. On January 4, 2007, Tom "Bunyon" McCarthy succumbed to cancer, only 2 short weeks after its diagnosis. A superb soprano soloist, Tom was with Sun from 1972-1980 and was the featured soloist in "Evergreen", among others. The deepest sympathies of the Sunrisers and Sunrisers Alumni go out to Toms wife and family and his many friends, students, and admirers.
Original Sunriser (and coincidently one of the reasons there WAS a Sunrisers Drum and Bugle Corps) John Hodge is ill at home after a hospital stay. Those of us who marched with John and/or knew him well should make an effort to send him a "Get Well" card to help cheer him up and let him know we care. Rather than post Johns address/phone on the website, please visit the Forum - the info is posted in the un-passworded General board. I know John doesn't have a computer, but my personal best wishes, "Semper Fi", and Get Well Soon go out to John. One of the good guys.
I'd like to thank those alumni who have responded by email to my request for your personal story. Hopefully I'll get many more responses over the coming weeks. We all have memories that should be shared and valued - let's keep them here for all to see and enjoy. Thanks for being a part of it. Please feel free to email me any photos you might have from your days with the Sunrisers so I can post them on the NEW Pictures and Media pages! It's my intention to make this site - and the companion Message Forum - a special place for ALL Sunriser Alumni. We are also trying to get a better response to organizing a "true" Sunrisers Alumni Association to help support the competing corps. Unlike the times many of us marched, it is horrendously expensive to field a corps these days. The Sunrisers still have one of the cheapest membership fees around, but that also means they have less money available for equipment and travel to contests. So if you are interested in participating ... please contact Jack Alexandro for details. Let's give these young Jokers a hand as they push for another DCA championship with a new Director, new instructors/caption heads, and Board of Directors! You can also email Bruce for information on the website, forum, or other topics relating to the Sunrisers Alumni ... or Tony White, Alumni Public Relations Director. |
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2008 Bowl-A-Thon and Annual Sunrisers Alumni/Competing Corps Family Picnic