Welcome to the New Year! As we prepare campus for a new semester, we’re already looking forward to January 1, 2024, when our INCOMPARABLE Golden Rams Marching Band will march in the iconic Rose Parade in Pasadena, California.

If you didn’t know, the Rose Parade is a prestigious event broadcast to more than 25 million people before the annual Rose Bowl Game. Next year’s parade will be its 135th anniversary, and the first time a PASSHE university marching band has participated. WHYY-FM featured the exciting news in a segment you can listen to here.

This great honor once again puts West Chester University into an international spotlight, deservedly so. Our INCOMPARABLE Golden Rams Marching Band is comprised of 350 students from more than 60 majors who devote themselves to both their studies and a demanding practice schedule.

Now our focus is turned to getting these 350 students to California. We’ve recently launched the “RamBand Road to the Roses ‘24” initiative, which is anchored by a $100,000 matching gift challenge thanks to the generosity of Dr. James Wells ’54 and Mr. Richard G. Wells ’58. The initiative invites donors to make a gift to be matched by March 10, 2023, which is West Chester University’s Charter Day of Giving. Gifts can be made at www.wcufoundation.org/RamBand/.

The future is bright for our Golden Ram community. I’m excited to see where the rest of the year takes us.

President Christopher M. Fiorentino

Alison Sharpe Beidler earned her B.S.Ed in 1995 and her M.Ed in 2018 from West Chester University. Currently, she is with the Chester County Intermediate Unit - Home & Community Services as a Behavior Consultant, supporting learners ages 3-21 in their homes, schools, and communities.

She said she chose WCU because “of the strength of the Early Childhood Education program, and because I just had to be in the INCOMPARABLE Golden Rams Marching Band.” She shared that band has been an important part of her life since birth; her parents met in their college band, and she was at all of their alumni marching band and alumni concert band performances.

She joined her school band in 4th grade, learned to play three different instruments through 12th grade, and took on a Minor in Music in her first semester at WCU. While at the university, she had the privilege of playing in the INCOMPARABLE Golden Rams Marching Band, Concert Band and Collegium Musicum, as well as singing in the Masterworks Chorus. In the Spring of 1991, Alison became a Brother of the Eta Rho chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi, National Honorary Band Fraternity, a college and university band service organization.

When Dr. Yozviak asked her to be a part of growing and developing the Bands Alumni chapter in 2013, she said "Yes was the only answer!".

"The WCU Bands were so integral to making me into the person I am today, and I knew I was not alone in wanting to have an avenue for the tens of thousands of WCU Bands Alumni to reconnect with the Wind Bands and WCU.”

Her responsibilities started with serving as the KKPsi Representative on the Executive Board, and she has had the honor of being selected to serve as Vice President, President, and now the Executive Director following that.

"I love that we're providing new performance and reunion opportunities each year for the alumni from every ensemble. We are bonded by music and performing in the WCU Wind Bands; our closest friends are ones we met in the bands and are now our chosen family for many of us. Even if our bodies won't let us march, twirl, or play any longer, the Bands Alumni chapter brings us back together.”

WCU's Wind Bands are also loved by her son, Isaac, who started playing trumpet in 4th grade. The picture above is a 2022 WCU Homecoming Alumni Ensemble Performance where he joined in, something they share together whenever they can.

You can find out how to join the WCU Bands Alumni Chapter on their website!