The Rockford Area Music Industry has once again honored Phantom Regiment with a coveted RAMI award.

Phantom Regiment was presented the award for Music Outreach Organization at RAMI’s annual awards event April 12. Phantom Regiment also was honored for Outstanding Achievement in 2001 and 2003.

The award was accepted by Board president Tim Farrell and Board member John Baumgartner.

Phantom Regiment, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2006, is a youth arts organization with a world-renowned drum and bugle corps as its crown jewel. The organization also sponsors a Fall Marching Band Festival for area high schools, a Drum Major Camp for aspiring high school drum majors and leaders, a Snare Drum Camp for high school students, and a world-class winter color guard.

The drum and bugle corps finished runner-up at the Drum Corps International World Championships in August 2006, while the winter guard captured seventh place at the Winter Guard International World Championships in April 2007.

Phantom Regiment’s Show of Shows, which features the Rockford Register Star as its title sponsor, annually draws more than 3,000 fans to Boylan Stadium. The corps also sponsors Drums Across the Tri-State, a show in Charleston, W.Va., which attracts many high school bands as spectators who use the event as a learning tool.

The Fall Marching Band Festival, which has been held at both Rockford College and Harlem High School, is open to all area bands. It provides high-quality adjudicators as well as a hands-on clinic for the entire band immediately following the band’s performance.

Phantom Regiment, which is endorsed by some of the top musical instrument and uniform manufacturers in the world, assists many area bands by loaning its equipment during the school year. Some of the groups to use Phantom Regiment’s equipment include Winnebago, Beloit Memorial, Stillman Valley and United Township high schools, and Northern Illinois University’s marching band.

Other nominees in the Music Outreach Organization category were Bach Chamber Choir, Crossroads Blues Society, Keith School Music Department, Mendelssohn Performing Arts Center, Rockford College Music Academy, Rockford Symphony Orchestra and Rockford Symphony Youth Orchestra.

For more information about Phantom Regiment, contact executive director Rick Valenzuela or development director Eric Sabach at 815-226-2835.