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21st Century Drum & Bugle Corps Foundation

The Foundation's Purpose

	To assist non-profit organizations in starting new junior drum and bugle corps around the United States to involve more young people.
	To maintain an "equipment bank" of used bugles, percussion equipment and uniforms, and make it available to start-up groups.
	To plan and implement or assist at management seminars for individuals who wish to learn about how to start a drum and bugle corps.
	To publish several books on the history of the drum and bugle corps activity and use the profits to perpetuate the foundation's other programs.

The Drum and Bugle Corps Activity

The drum and bugle corps activity can trace its modern-day roots back to the end of World War I when veterans returning from Europe established hundreds of adult drum and bugle corps throughout the United States.

These groups, whose primary purpose was to march in parades and appear at ceremonies, were directly affiliated with posts of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW).

During the 1930s, many veterans posts also set up junior corps for their sons and, in the middle of that decade, church and YMCA organizations also began sponsoring drum and bugle corps.

The junior corps movement took off in the 1950s with units that were made up essentially of members from the same neighborhood or town.

At the activity's peak during the 1960s, there were several thousand junior and senior corps. The number began to decline as the activity became more mobile and corps began to spend more time each summer touring toward the August championship events.

Currently there are approximately 200 drum and bugle corps in North America. The 21st Century Foundation hopes to get that number growing again.

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