Drum and bugle corps alumni display decades of sisterhood at all-corps performance
The sounds of bagpipes, drums and bugles filled the Parkview High School gym on Friday, July 31 as it hosted the Springfield Public Schools All-Corps 2026 performance, featuring the current Parkview Lassies and Central Kilties with alumni groups from all five traditional high schools.
The Central High School Kilties became the first female uniformed Scottish drum and bugle corps in the nation in 1926 when it was the only high school in town, named Springfield High School. As more high schools were opened, more high school drum and bugle corps were developed until all five traditional SPS high schools had thriving corps of 36-40 members each:
- Central Kilties, 1926-present
- Parkview Lassies, 1956 - 1995, reestablished 2012-present
- Hillcrest Highlanders, 1958-2012
- Glendale Scotties, 1963-2003
- Kickapoo Bonnies, 1971-1988
Today only two of the original five corps remain active, as the Parkview Lassies and Central Kilties continue to perform across the country. These students not only carry the tradition of drum and bugle corps, but the legacy and sisterhood of all who marched before them across the entire SPS district. After All-Corps 2025, Parkview Lassies sponsors Samantha Gardner and Joni Stant set out to find a way to involve all of the alumni at the 2026 celebration, especially the three corps that no longer march.
“As the years go on, people forget, the history is lost and we felt like it was important to make sure that their legacy and history lives on somehow,” said Stant. “That history is actually thousands of women that still love being a part of something so special. While Samantha and I are the current Lassie sponsors, we are also Lassie alumnae. Though we come from different eras of the Lassies, we both share the belief that preserving the legacy and sisterhood is important and worth saving.”
Stant and Gardner met with small groups of alumni from each corps to initially pitch the idea of them participating in All-Corps with something simple to share their histories. Following those meetings, corps alumni of all ages began to gather and hold practices. They relearned drum cadences and practiced bugle calls, bagpipe music and twirling. Ultimately, they created five “new” corps with more than 100 alumni ready to perform at all-corps once again.
“Getting to be Highlanders again was a dream come true for so many of us,” said Jamie Lairmore Moss.
“It was such fun to hear the cadences and march with my corps again after all these years. I never thought I would get the chance to play a bugle again. All the performances were fantastic,” said Debra Roberts McArthur.
The alumni groups consisted of former corps members from as far back as 1955 to those who just graduated this past May. Seeing several generations march and kick together was an inspiring sight to many. The Kickapoo Bonnies even poked fun at their age after all these years, beginning their performance with exclamations of “Oh, my back!” and “What did she say?”
“The kilted, all-female drum corps here in Springfield are completely unique and exist nowhere else in the United States,” said Stant. “As we get farther out from the time that the corps disbanded, their alumnae age – we lose and have lost many each year. We all lose so much if their history and memories are lost.”
Four of the five alumni groups practiced at Parkview leading up to all-corps. The current Lassies corps got to meet the alumnae and watch them practice. They witnessed ladies of all ages — alumni ranging from 18 to 82 — working just like they do at practice. They learned first-hand how the sisterhood of these corps lasts a lifetime.
