From Colin Richardson of Cary, North Carolina:

My band director loves drum and bugle corps, and has all the DCI DVD’s, so I asked to borrow them a few seasons ago. I started with 1993, hoping to finally understand all the gushing my instructor did over Star of Indiana that year, or my friend’s favorite corps (The Cadets). I started out this video in a friends surround-sound room, and enjoyed both these shows, but didn’t stop the DVD.

Then the Phantom Regiment came on, and I was simply blown away by every single aspect of the performance. The percussion, the ballad with helmets on the ground, and most of all the intensity of the “death hunt”…I was hooked!

Since then, I’ve smiled as my few friends who know about drum corps debate which various corps they think are better, then gone home and listened to one of the Regiment cd’s. The pride, the tradition, the excellence of the Phantom Regiment is – in my eyes – unsurpassed, and constantly motivates me to greater heights.

In rehearsal or other challenging moments (like most recently on a 150 mile bike ride), if I feel myself slacking I just need to hear a snippet from Apasionada 874, or even think about the Regiment, and I find the energy to go on.

But beyond my love and respect for the corps, I am a Phantom Phan because I’m always talking about the Regiment, and sometimes… well, maybe
I’m even a bit effusive. Such as the PR music marathons on my car sound system, or wearing shorts with high, chevron laden socks. Or maybe such as listening to ‘Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral’ and ‘ave maria’ so many times my friends either shout for joy or call for my head!

Or maybe just that I’m working to have enough money to fly to O’Hare for camps when I know I am ready to audition.

I hope you can consider me, Colin Richardson of Cary, NC, to be an official Phantom Phan. A socially active, responsible and intelligent young man from the Southeast, and an ambassador for the greatest drum corps in the world!

Thanks, Colin

Colin…consider yourself chosen! Thanks for the great letter and look for a special gift in the mail soon!

Know anyone who qualifies as a “Phantom Phan” of extraordinary measure? Perhaps you yourself? Let us know and then keep your eyes peeled to www.regiment.org each month!

Past “Phantom Phan of the Month” awardees:

Zach Cannon of Mississippi
Veronica Lanier of Arkansas
Zach Boughton of Colorado
Bill Malone of Tennessee
Cody Robinson of Tennessee
Micheal Heiter of California
Phil Vermont of California
Scott Woodford of Illinois
Lynn Morehouse of Indiana