JMU Marching Royal Dukes Donate over $1,000 to Special Olympics

HARRISONBURG, Va- "This one time at band camp," students that represent almost every major at James Madison University banded together to support a local Virginia-area special olympics program. During the 2015 home opener football game, the Marching Royal Dukes announced that a contribution of over $1,000 was given to the Special Olympics of Virginia, Area-4.

The marching band organized a series of inner-program games throughout the week called "section olympics," which takes place during the band's pre-season camp.  Games such as puzzles, races, scavenger hunts, and other fun-loving competitions were held on the field and at the JMU campus. Teams were organized by each member's section of the band.

One favorite game of this year was the "t-shirt melt," which brought each team together to figure out how to melt a frozen t-shirt in the fastest way possible. A different evening, each group was challenged with a trivia race combined with a puzzle.

Throughout the week, a new tradition known as "penny wars," allowed sections to sabotage each other by placing large bills in opposing teams' collection buckets. The only way to get your team to win was by bringing the most amount of pennies for your own team's bucket... or take the more charitable route and simply donate massive amounts of large bills or coins to other teams, which ends up penalizing the team who doesn't have as many pennies.

The band did just that -- and took the charitable route.

At the end of the week, every penny and bill was counted. The total was over $1,000 for the Virginia Special Olympics Area-4, which is a local group that provides services directly to the athletes living in Harrisonburg, Rockingham, Page and Shenandoah Counties.

Prior to Saturday's "Day with the Dukes" football game, the Marching Royal Dukes simulated a game day team run-out accompanied by the JMU Fight Song. The special olympians had the opportunity to through the tunnel, and participate in activities on the field with the football team.

"We want to get everyone involved," stated Scott Rikkers, director of the Marching Royal Dukes. "Our community call-to-action is to go volunteer, give, or help in whatever way you can -- whereever you can. If everyone pitched in their time and energy, the overall impact is so much greater."

Volunteer or contribute to the Special Olympics of Virginia.

The drum major team celebrates with the special olympians.

The Marching Royal Dukes create a pregame run-through for the special olympians.

By Chase Maszle ('17), JMU Athletic Bands
Published September 6, 2015