Last updated on 10/13/09.
This page is here to place information about the 2009 Texas Fire Pipes and Drums practice in Georgetown, TX. Please check by from time to time.
Thursday, November 12th, 2009 - There is a block of 20 rooms at the Comfort Suites in Georgetown.
(Comfort Suites, Georgetown, (512) 863-7544)
The National Honor Guard Academy is being hosted by the Fire Department the week of November 8th-13th so when making your reservations please be sure to say you are with the “Pipes and Drums”.
Booking includes hot breakfast, each room has a microwave, fridge, coffee maker, hair dryer, free high speed internet and the hotel has a business center. Or course Chili’s and Applebee’s are walking distance. Deadline to book your room is October, 21st!!
Thursday night we are planning a meet and greet at Stephen Cameron’s House. He has a nice place and an even nicer back yard / deck / pool. Ian K. McDonald is staying at Stephen’s and so it just makes sense to have it at Steve’s! Y’all just come and go, it will be a GREAT time and a great way to kick off the weekend! We will have refreshments (and kegs) and snacks so eat before you come. We will also have the information for spouses there.
Depending on the time of night, some of the shops on the Square stay open late. There are some awesome shops so you can get in some early Christmas shopping (I always go to the Escape - you can’t go wrong there guys!) There is a great coffee shop and some nice restaurants. Just take a stroll with your family and enjoy!
Friday, November 13th, 2009
The Fall State Practice is going to be in Georgetown, TX at the First Baptist Church (1333 W. University Ave). It will start at 8am SHARP and conclude at 5pm. We have 3 piping instructors, the first is Toronto Police Pipe Band P/M Ian K. MacDonald (Here is the T.P.P.B. in action.), Westminster Pipe Band P/M Bruce Robertson, and ESPADA Pipe Major Todd Bircher. We will of course have Ian’s good friendStephen Cameron from Cameron Highland Drumming and Stephen’s wing man from his Westminster Drum Corp Jon Greene working with all of the drummers. We want to have a good, solid day of practice for every member attending. There are several things that I’m sure each P/M wants to work on and Jeff will be gathering info from all state P/Ms prior to the practice so that we can get right to work. From 8 a.m.-12 p.m. we will (more than likely) be inside on chanters and practice pads in different breakout rooms. Lunch will be provided by Local 3991 and catered on site so that we can keep working. From 1-5 p.m. we will (more than likely) be outside marching and playing whatever the instructors determine to practice. There will be two vendors on site, Tommy’s Drum Shop and Lone Star Piper and tables will be available for everyone to sell t-shirts and hats. We will also have the information for the spouses available there.
Several spouses have stepped up to help with activities for your family to do while in Georgetown. There will be a kid-friendly package and a shopper’s package. We will try to think of some others and would welcome input. The Georgetown Convention & Visitors Center is providing us with information to hand out.
After practice, we are looking at letting everyone grab a bite to eat somewhere in Georgetown and we will have advise for good places to eat. The good news is everything is really close by.
A new item that has come up that we will take input on…the Downtown Georgetown’s Association’s Summer Music Series will be at the corner of 8th and Main St. on Friday night. We might be able to go and crash the music scene. I do not want to rush all over the place however. (They already asked and I told them we will think about it.) I will leave that one up in the air for now.
We have booked a 55 passenger Charter Bus to get to (and return from) the Pub crawl. We would ask that each of you pitch in about $11.50 to get a safe ride to and from 6th St. for you and your instrument. Here are the transportation details…
The Charter will:
arrive at the Comfort Suites in Georgetown at 8:30pm, (Load up!)
depart Georgetown at 9:00pm,
arrive in Austin (6th St. area) about 9:30pm, (Unload, Tune, and Crawl!)
The Charter will:
be available to load up (6th St. area) at 12:30am
depart Austin at 1:00am
arrive at the Comfort Suites in Georgetown about 1:30am.
ESPADA Band Manager, Coitt Kessler, is coordinating the Pub Crawl (as only he can - I don’t know how he does it!) on 6th Street in Austin on Friday night. We will more than likely hit some of the same pubs (B.D. Riley’s and Fado) from Fall ‘07 and then get back to Georgetown in one piece. It will be a blast and even more time to practice as a State Group! E.G.H.
END of State Practice.
Saturday, November 14th, 2009
(History leading up to this whole thing) - At the 2008 Salado Highland Games, Rose Adams (the coordinator) approached us the see if there would be any interest in hosting a Texas Emergency Services Pipe Band Invitational. We told her we would look into it and it sounds like there might just be some interest throughout the state. It will be a mini-band (friendly) competition with a $40 entry fee and place prize and a trophy. This will be the first of hopefully many to come if it goes well. This is a chance to go out on the field and get some very valuable feedback from some world class judges. Public Safety bands normally do not compete at events. No pressure here, but this gives us all another chance to hone our mad skills, get some advise from the judges (Ian and Bruce), get our band names out there and represent our departments in a very good way! The people will see the incredible pride we have in our noble profession and our sense of tradition. Whoever wins buys everyone a round!
In the morning there is individual piping competition for those that are sober (cough - Dan!). There will be a March Past Parade that will open the Games at Noon. Due to flooding damage the games will be held at the Salado Civic Center at 601 N. Main St. in Salado. The Emergency Service competition will begin at 2 p.m. After that, grab a seat in your lawn chair and enjoy the Grade 3 competition at 3pm. Salado usually attracts the St. Thomas Episcopal Pipe Band, Silver Thistle Pipe Band and other Grade 3 bands. They are good! That night there is a Tattoo at the ruins of the old Salado College which is really cool.
Sunday, November 15th, 2009
Rose Adams has asked if the whole state group or a small contingent might be interested in competing in the Grade 4 competition. We will have to see if we have enough interest from the group and go from there. If there is please let us know so we can register.
Stay tuned for much more info like music you can select for competing, hotel info, Georgetown attractions for the family, Thursday night info, etc…
It looks like it will be one heck of a weekend! The most important part is that we must get a good, solid day of practice in on Friday. That is the whole point–the rest is just fun and games! The Salado Highland Games will provide a chance to improve your skills on several levels. There will be something for everyone. See y’all soon!
New item… The Georgetown FD Honor Guard is set to host the National Honor Guard Academy the week of November 8-13, 2009 in Georgetown. Should be a fun week!
If you need anything or have any ideas please contact us and we will get right back with you.
The shirts for sale at the Visitors Center and Fire Stations are $15. The shirts available for purchase online vary in price. All profits will go to the Breast Cancer Resource Centers of Texas.
Members of the band along with ESPADA and APD Pipes & Drums performed on 9/11/09. The first performance was at the old Buford training tower at Lady Byrd Lake at the time the Twin Towers were attacked. 343 Firefighters paid the supreme sacrifice that day and this band will not forget.
The band grabbed some breakfast and headed to the State Capital for our 2nd performance at the CAPCOG awards at 11am. After that we headed to the Capital Rotunda for a performance at Noon. This performance turned out to be as close to perfect as we have ever played. Here is a video.
The band headed to Opal Divines for some lunch and weather watching! The weather was moving in and the Taylor Parade and 9/11 observance was canceled.
A Fire Department Promotional Ceremony was held on Friday night at the Council Chambers. P/M Jeff Davis was promoted to Battalion Chief of the B-shift. Congrats Jeff!! Friday night also marked Amador Anguiano’s first performance back with the band since his tour of duty in Iraq serving our Country. It was nice to have him back. We were also joined by ESPADA and APD P/M Todd Bircher and Honorary Drum Sergeant Stephen Cameron. What a great night! The band is gearing up for a long run of performances.
Our P/M Jeff Davis vacationed in Scotland and was able to go see the World Pipe Band Competition! He also was able to contact the gentleman that he bought his first chanter from over in Scotland. Jeff wrote an article in the Piping Times telling our story about how we got started piping and the piper he met at the roadside stand read the article and contacted Jeff. He was very nice and wrote a tune dedicated it to the band.
The Downtown Georgetown Association hosts Market Days on the second Saturday of each month on our beautiful historic square. We recently joined the DGA to become more active in our downtown and to network with our community. We are very excited to have a tent at Market Days to be able to visit with members of the community, answer any questions about the band and also to be able to sell our super cool merchandise. We will have T-shirts, Hats, and Patches for sale. We will have our donation drum, business cards, donation forms, and merchandise forms. We hope to see you there!
We are now on Facebook! This is another way for fans to follow the band’s activities. We will be able to update our Facebook with information on events, news, contact info, and most importantly connect with people on Facebook. It is a very popular site these days so it only makes sense for the band to have a presence on it. Here is the link.
The band performed twice yesterday in the San Gabriel Park for SERTOMA’s 25th Annual 4th of July Celebration. The first performance was leading off the Hometown kids parade through the park at 11am. This was such a fun event! Children decorated their wagons with Red, White, and Blue and we had the honor of leading the Parade from the low water bridge to the Gazebo. ESPADA Pipe Sargent Dave Crowder came up and enjoyed the event with us. Thanks Dave!
At 7pm in front of the Gazebo we played several tunes and sets of tunes for a large crowd. ESPADA Pipe Major Todd Bircher and Tenor Drummer Donny Caldwell (and families) came up to play the event with us and made it even better! The music was great and we hope the crowd enjoyed it because we sure did - even though it was a little warm out there! Thanks Todd and Donny!
Drumming Instructor Stephen Cameron with Cameron Highland Drumming hosted the second drum clinic at his house in Gerogetown, TX on June 6th. Students from Georgetown, Lancaster and Houston Fire Department’s Pipes and Drums attended. It was hot but there was some shade and some good progress was made on fundamentals and technique. Lunch from a local Mexican Food restaurant was provided and it was great! The next clinic will be on October 17th. Check out the page dedicated to the drum clinics here.
TPPB Pipe Major Ian K. McDonald will be in Georgetown TX teaching pipers from all over the State as we host the 2009 State Practice! I don’t know about you but I’m looking forward to learning from him. They seem to be breaking into new territory with their music. It seems to be very cutting edge competition pieces! Wow! Good stuff there!
The Texas Line of Duty Death Task Force would like to
announce the launching of their official website, www.texasfallenfirefighter.com or www.texasfallenhero.org. This
website offers a comprehensive collection of information and
resources for fire and EMS departments that are either putting
together protocols and procedures for handling a line of duty death
or injury; or for those departments that are currently experiencing a
death and need quick access guides.
The website offers: the Task Forces official response manual,
funeral planning information, sample procedures and guidelines,
information and articles on grief and trauma, resources for caring
for a department after a death or injury, investigations and
near-miss incidents, education & classes, memorial information, and
much more.
We set up an account with Twitter.com for our cool groupies! It is a way for anyone to follow the band’s activities. We are now able to send updates from a cell phone containing a short message informing you what the band is up too. We will be able to have new posts from our website appear on our Twitter account as well. Sign up and “follow” the band!
The Fire Department assisted the band with the upfront cost and ordering the patches. The band has been able to purchase some from the FD and they are now available for an $8 donation to the band. Piper Scott Laurich designed the patches and Drummer Robert Gordon and Drummer David England were able to get them ordered through the Fire Department. Thank you Asst. Chief Shell and Fire Chief Fite for your support and assistance! Contact a band member to purchase a patch or print a merchandise order form and mail it to us.
The Band made two different designs of T-shirts and they are available for $15. Each design comes in Forest Green and Navy Blue. Piper Scott Laurich and Drummer Robert Gordon came up with the designs. They range in sizes from M, L, XL, and XXL. Contact one of the band members to get one of the shirts or print a merchandise order form and we will send you one or two!
Snare Drummer Amador Anguiano has returned from Iraq after bravely serving our country for one year. We are so thankful that he is home safe and sound!! We are really looking forward to him getting back on the “line”! Amador was able to attend a band practice and we were all able to enjoy some great dance moves as well!
Amador, thank you for your service and for keeping this great nation safe.
Thanks to the support of our families and the Fire Department, 6 members of the band attended the 2nd Annual Keeping Tradition Alive Pipes and Drums / Honor Guard Symposium in Lewisville, TX. This years Symposium was attended by over 300 Fire Fighters from 14 states. Members arrived Wednesday night, visited with attendees and went to eat twice! Thursday kicked off with an amazing opening ceremonies and then a meet and greet. We started in on the workshop about 1pm. We broke about 5pm and went to downtown Lewisville to perform with all of the other Pipers and Drummers in a Massed Band setting. We were treated to Firehouse Subs thanks to the LFD and then it was on to the Pub Crawl at a couple of Lewisville’s old pubs downtown. Friday it was back to work and a chance to sell and buy T-shirts. On a side note…one of our members is in fact still alive after returning home and informing his wife he had purchased 15 T-shirts from all of the bands in attendance.
At T.G.I. Friday’s in Lewisville, on 5/14/2009, members of the band voted unanimously to ask Stephen Cameron with Cameron Highland Drumming to honor us by becoming our honorary Drum Sergeant. He said he would be thrilled to do that. Stephen Cameron has been instructing since the Spring of 2007 and the Georgetown Fire Department Pipes and Drums can not thank Stephen enough for coming by the station many times to help us learn the drumming, putting up with us when we get calls in the middle of practice, being a huge supporter of the band and letting us call him Brother! Thank you Stephen!
Pipers Scott Laurich and Joshua Ratliff have become performing members with the Georgetown FD Pipes and Drums. Scott and Joshua have been working very hard for the last year or two to get up on the pipes. They started on the practice chanter learning the notes and embelishments. Soon they ordered their Great Highland Bagpipes and began to learn how to play the new tunes on the Pipes.
Their first performance was at the Williamson County Courthouse to play for the memorial for the victims of violent crimes of Williamson County on 4/27/09. The very next day they joined the band at the Weslyan Retirement community for a performance in front of about 25 residents. They are doing very well continuing to learn more and more tunes. Both new members will be attending the 2009 Keeping Tradition Alive Pipes and Drums Symposium in Lewisville soon.
Here are some photos and videos from the 2009 Red Poppy Festival Parade. This was the 10th annual festival and the 2nd year that the band has marched in the parade. The Emergency Service Pipes and Drums Assosiation marched with the band to make this the best year yet. Members of the Fire Department including our new Fire Chief Robert Fite marched “Rank and File” behind the band followed by the recently reworked 1922 Seagrave Pumper named “Betsy”. The Georgetown FD Clown’s rode on the back. Recently retired BC. Mark Moss drove and retired VFF Wiggy Shell rode the “seat”! Following Betsy was the new 100′ Platform Truck Co. #1.
Members of the Pipes and Drums and Honor Guard wlecomed our new fire Chief Robert Fite on March 6th at Swearing in Ceremony at the Council Chambers.. We were assisted by members of the Emergency Services Pipes and Drums. There are some pictures and video of the cermony online.
Hey folks! ESPADA is an Emergency Service band we play with and our performing members are all members of ESPADA. Members of ESPADA have come and assisted Georgetown FD P&D on several occasions. One of the fundraisers is providing manning for the gates at FADO’s on St. Patrick’s Day.
This is a blast for the folks that sign up to help and in return FADO’s donates $$$ to ESPADA. ESPADA use the money for band equipment, uniforms, travel, and training. If you are interested in helping out please sign up. You get a free T-shirt and I think some refreshments!
Here they are! A big thanks to Piper Scott Laurich for designing and ordering these awesome hats! The hats are black Flexfit hats and we ordered several sizes. They have some green in them too!! Contact a member of the band to purchase one for $20 or print a merchandise order form and we will send you one or two!
Stephen Cameron with Cameron Highland Drumming hosted a drumming clinic at his house on on Saturday, Jan 31st. The clinic was open to all interested drummers wanting to get some top notch instruction in a relaxed environment. Stephen opened up his “tool box” on the students and introduced “voicing” adding some needed music to our mid section drummers. We had Irish Stew thanks to Mrs. Cameron and the clinic concluded with some ice cold drinks in the evening. Stephen has such a nice place and it is perfect for hosting these types of clinics. There will be more in the future. Departments attending included College Station FD, Denton FD, Plano FD, ESPADA, Georgetown FD, Cleveland (OH) FD, and I think McKinney FD.
After over 33 years in the Fire Service (15 of those with Georgetown FD) BC Mark Moss Retires on 1/30/2009. The Fire Department held an outstanding ceremony with the Pipes and Drums, Honor Guard, Final Inspection if the Rank and File, and awards and proclamations. BC Moss will be missed but he is looking forward to spending some time working on his Model A car and practicing his chanter. Mark is going to remain in the band and continue to strive to be playing the Bagpipes soon!
Members of the Band performed at a Promotional and Swearing In Ceremony for the new promotions on January 23rd, 2009. The event was held at the City Of Georgetown Council Chambers on 7th Street. The promotions included Bass Drummer David England to the Rank of Captain. There was a welcome and pledge by Interim Fire Chief Clay Shell followed by the Band performing the Scotland the Brave Set. Afterward there were plenty of photo ops and Cake!
