#1 RCG is a community​

• With nearly 3600 students in the high school, it can be very difficult for a student to find their place or not to get lost in the crowd. The marching band is a community of 150+ students within the school that spend time outside of school building relationships that will often last the rest of their lives. When a 9th-grade marching band member walks into the high school on the first day of school they have friends everywhere they look.

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#2 RCG is a place for everyone

• Marching band is like very few other competitive high school activities because we accept all students.  While there may be some audition activities to assess the skill set of students for instructional needs or instrument placements, the program does not have cuts – rather we just create more positions to accommodate all students who want to join.  Marching band is actually the single biggest activity at the high school with about 5% of the school population participating.

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#3 RCG is about family

• “How was your day”?  “Fine”.  “What did you do today”?  “Nothing”.  Is this conversation familiar? 

        As our children get into high school they have their own world and their own friends and we are not a part of it so they begin to drift              away.  If you go behind the scenes at an RCG practice or contest you will see dozens of parents helping our students with uniforms,                food, first aid, equipment, and so on.  In sports, the parents are in the stands but in marching band, there are opportunities for parents

        to get involved with their students.  Many of our parents will tell you that when they walk down the hall their child’s friends say hi and

        know them by name.

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#4 RCG teaches students how to achieve

• Parents today struggle to find a way to get their children off the couch, off the video games, away from their electronics, etc.  The key is to get kids “on to” something rather than trying to get them off of something.  Most children have never had the experience of working hard at something for weeks or months and seeing what they can achieve when they apply themselves.  It doesn’t matter whether a person spends hundreds of hours perfecting a gymnastics routine, learning to swing a golf club or perfecting a music performance – the process is the same.  Our members learn how to grow themselves which is a skill that will help them the rest of their lives.

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#5 RCG grows leaders

• We are a place where upper-classmen are able to take a leadership role.  Students are organized into sections with section captains that are responsible for their sections.  We work with our upperclassmen on how to lead and as members get older we help them to step into those leadership roles.

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#6 RCG is about teamwork

• Marching band contests are scored as a team so we are only as good as our weakest member.   Because of this, our members work to help each other become better.  Our students have an attitude of building each other up rather than competing with each other.  It is common for section leaders and older students to meet with new members one on one or in groups to help them with music and movements.