Canada Day Parade in Sherwood Park

Drum Major Sgt Pat Stoyko

After a long hiatus, the Strathcona Pipes and Drums were on display in public for the Sherwood Park Canada Day Parade. The day started out promising with just a light rain, which quickly turned into a deluge. Once the band took position at the head of the parade we stepped off to provide the skirl of the pipes and the beat of the drum to the populace of Sherwood Park. As we made the first turn onto the parade route the wind kicked in, causing the Band to assume the safety squint in order to maintain visibility. The entire Band then gained 15 pounds each as we were lashed with wind and rain. All in all the parade was a positive experience for us as we gained experience marching as a formed body, even though the Drum Major had issues with water pooling within his gauntlets. Despite all of this, the Band won the Best Musical Entry for 2012, an accomplishment we can be proud of. Now that we have dried out, the Band has also completed playing in Calgary at Spruce Meadows from 6-8 July. With more appearances comes more confidence, which will be good as some of our members such as myself are quite inexperienced to this sort of display.

The band this year has consisted of 5 pipers, Pipe Major WO Marvin MacNeill, WO Cordell Boland, MCpl Colin Davidson, Cpl Cameron Davidson and Cpl Izzak Koolman, along with 4 drummers, Cpl James Lajoie, Cpl Hayden Hunt, Tpr Dino Visaya, Cpl Brandon Young and Drum Major Sgt Pat Stoyko.