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Dear Parents and Students of the Monsoon Marching Corps:

I wanted to say: “thank you” for an amazing marching season. From its early design stage to final presentation, the creativity of our staff, the diligence of our performers and our dedicated parents, together, put on a show that entertained thousands of people along our four month journey.  WE did a great job!  Congratulations, Silver Medalists!

I want to thank our staff: Griselda, Malika, Jacob, Evan,  Nikki, Nathan, Chris, Melanie, Miguel, Harry and Nico for everything.  This show has been the brainchild of Griselda Gonzalez for years and I am glad she was able to see it come to life musically through Harry and Nico, and visually through Nathan.

I want to thank our army of parents led by Deanne Thompson. The fireworks stand and two field tournaments financially helped us develop the show and its props (built by Art Oropeza and his team). I want to thank Wes Cummings and all his helpers in organizing food and transportation along with David and Leslie Watkins and Martin and Maria Ruvalcaba to get our stuff where it was needed to be every week. Everywhere I looked, parents were in the mix, making sure everyone was taken care of and the program flourished.  A special thanks to Nicole Foster for walking the neighborhood and getting donations to outfit us and build our programs for shows.  I want to thank Lisa Villamor and Leslie Watkins for keeping our money straight and overseeing the thousands of dollars going through our account.  Again, THANK YOU PARENTS!

I want to thank Nikki Bakker for being the best office assistant making sure we had buses, dealt with bills, ASB, giving out hundreds of receipts, running errands and running block so I could teach. You make everything so effortless!

And lastly, thanks to the 125 member Monsoon Marching Corps, led by our drum major, Chiagozie Okoye for being the best kids ever! You have learned so much and those values will be with you for the rest of your lives.  Remember what it took to get to the end and use that work ethic to “win it all” as you work to reach every goal you set for yourself.

I look forward to our parade in a few weeks, winter concert and the celebration march down Main Street USA at Disneyland in January.  Woo hoo!

I am a blessed teacher and humbled to be part of your lives.  I love you all. 
Happy Thanksgiving, 
Mr. Philips 

Lots of pictures from the Friday night bbq and the shows can be viewed here: CSBC Semifinals. I encourage you all to add your own pictures, especially if you took any on the field after awards. I usually pick a few from the shows that are group shots or key moments to feature on these posts but it’s fun to see all the personal, individual and candid shots as well. These will add a personal touch to the year-end memory book. Thank you!

(Photo Credit: The photos in the album that say Mayfair Monsoons are from John Loyola’s Dropbox. Thank you!)