Quick March

Wednesday we finally caught up with the bagpipe busker, Rob Caulder, at Finn McCool’s Irish Pub in Innsbrook. Rob played and raised money for his charity at Finn’s backed by supporters from our band, as well as the Irish American Society, Scottish Society, and St. Andrew’s Society. The event was sponsored by the St. Andrew’s Society. I picked Rob up on Tuesday from the Greyhound terminal and we talked piping all the way to Tim’s place. Apparently Tim and Rob played the pipes and entertained the folks for quite a while. I really admire the leap Rob took. He’s coming over here seeing the States and doing one of the things he loves. We should all take such chances. Worst case it will be one of those stories he can tell his grand kids about. Rob is on his way to Raleigh and Charlotte this weekend and places beyond. You can keep up with him at his web site http://bagpipebusker.com Here’s one for the road Rob… Slàinte

Speaking of places beyond… Things are really taking off for the band. We’ve got our more relaxed, yet military looking work uniforms, and we are on the verge of some really big things. Today the Pipe Major will pick up a $4000+ annual check out at Innsbrook from a soon to be named sponsor and there is more lined up on the horizon. Around September/October the band is looking at another sponsor/donation that will shoot us into the stratosphere literally. September is when we in addition to some new sponsors we will have some really big news to announce as well. Once its official and I’d say it’s about 90% there, this news will leave your jaw on the floor and it will be a major coup for the Central Virginia area and for the local piping & drumming community.

Pipie has been busy as yesterday he spent time at a photo shoot out at Innsbrook for his upcoming role as the official piper to MacLaren Jewelers and the Innsbrook Community. There will be more to come on this as you can probably guess. Make sure to keep up with us and all these exciting developments on our blog right here and with our news letter ‘By The Center’ which you can subscribe to here. You’ll want to stay tuned to find out why we are now a registered vendor with the US Army (all I’ve been given permission to speak of, are the words “Great Things in 2010″) Also find out about our move to MacCallum pipe chanters.

Reminder: Mark your calendars now for the Ft. Lee Celtic Bash on July 18th at 6:00 PM, which is a precursor for yet another major event to be held on the base in 2010. We’ll be opening for Seven Nations and Poisoned Dwarf that evening, after our return from the Appalachian Roots Festival in Wintergreen. There could be some other surprises in store, so circle the date. I’ll update everyone once I have more information about the event.

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I want to thank all of you at SALPD who got me my new Ross Cannister bag.

I never cared for the older version due to the flimsy feel, but the new style is great with suede which gives it that “Hide Heft Feel”

The new bag style almost looks as if you can get away with out a cover-lol and I know it would appeal to Tom Shuff, since it’s red! LOL

The Gannaway was repaired with Gorilla Glue, but like a repaired tire, you just don’t know how much life is left in it. I transferred the old bag onto my second set of Naill’s for solo and back up.

Pipie

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June 25th SALPD Night

We’d like to take a moment and invite you to dinner with the SALPD. On Thursday June 25th you are cordially invited to attend a fund raiser dinner at The Melting Pot Restaurant. In order to participate all you have to do is order off of the special SALPD menu. The menu includes a delicious four course meal starting with a cheese fondue, a salad, your main entree, and last but not least a chocolate fondue. The Melting Pot is located off of Gayton Rd in the West End. To call ahead for reservations call 804-741-3120 or on their website http://meltingpot.com Make sure you order from the special SALPD menu to help us out and have a great meal at the same time.

On a personal note this is my wife’s favorite restaurant. We’ve had dinner there on at least 10 of our 14 anniversaries not to mention a few Valentine Days as well. Including one during a snow storm about 9 – 10 years ago. The ambiance is great as well as the food. I’m not a wine person but they have a great selection of wine and are on several lists for their selection. Please come down have a good time and help us out at the same time. For more information please see the flier on our site Fundraiser_Menu.pdf We look forward to seeing you there.

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Old Glory

One of the events the band is doing in a short 9 days is the Flag Day Event in Powhatan. Mr. Childress put on a 4th of July Event there last year to help raise money for Families of the Wounded Fund. He immediately started planning his next event which is this Flag Day Event. The event will help raise funds for The Virginia War Memorial and The Virginia Wounded Warrior Program I can’t say things better than they did in this article in the Powhatan Today (although you do have to ignore the UGLY photo that accompanies the article)

This event is a family friendly event and was quite nice last year. It is worth the drive to see this event and help our wounded veterans and help preserve the memory of those who have gone before. There is no overhead for this event so 100% of the proceeds go to the above mentioned charities. This event is sponsored by the James M. Slay Detachment of the Marine Corp League. For more information about them click here There is also a pdf on our site that has information including driving directions www.salpd.com/FlagDay.pdf We look forward to seeing you out there to help honor our military men and women. Thanks and we’ll see you there.

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