Warren Central’s Big Blue Band raising funds for WGI World Championship

Each year hundreds of students, band directors and band parents gear up to compete in the Winter Guard International World Championship. 

After months of practice and competitions in local and regional events, schools send their indoor percussion, winds and color guard to Dayton, Ohio, to compete for the title of world champion.

Schools compete in three areas:

• Winter guard is the sport of indoor color guard. Modern color guard is a combination of the use of flags, sabers, mock rifles, and other equipment, as well as dance and other interpretive movement.
• An indoor percussion ensemble or indoor drumline consists of the marching percussion (also called battery) and front ensemble (also called pit) sections of a marching band or drum corps. Indoor percussion marries elements of music performance, marching, and theater; thus, the activity is often referred to as percussion theater.
•  Winds presents marching ensembles of any instrumentation in the same performance environment as indoor color guard and percussion ensembles.

For several years Warren Central High School’s indoor percussion and winter guard have made the trip to Ohio to attempt to achieve this title.  This year Warren Central High Schools Big Blue Band plans to compete again. 

Though the students have dedicated their time and energy to practicing for this contest, they still need the support of the community to achieve their goals.

Both groups are selling Boston Butts and boxes of Welch’s fruit snacks to raise enough funds to cover transportation to Dayton. The Boston Butts are cooked by Ricky Standish and cost $25 for every 4 to 6 pounds. The proceeds will go to the winter guard’s goal of $4,000 and indoor percussion ensemble’s goal of $6,000.

 To place an order and support the youth of Vicksburg, contact your favorite Big Blue Band member or email your order to percussion director Nathan Ball at Nathan.ball@vwsd.org. 

All orders must be submitted by Dec. 16 and can be picked up from Warren Central High School, 1000 Mississippi Highway 27, Dec. 21 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

To find out more about the competition, go to the WGI website.