Maine Public Safety Pipe & Drum Corps
Recent News
Maine Public Safety
Pipe & Drum Corps

PO Box 8821
Portland, ME 04104

info@mainepipes.org
1-888-MEPIPES (637-4737)

NEWS

09/11/08 - The Corps put on a very moving 9-11 Memorial Service at Riverbank Park in Westbrook on Thursday, Sept. 11. We had the Brunswick PD Honor Guard, police/fire/EMS vehicles and personnel from many different departments. The speakers were Pipe Major Shawn Theberge, Chaplain Don Williams, and Westbrook Mayor Bruce Chuluda.

To see some of the coverage, please go to the following links:  WCSH   WMTW

08/16-17/08 - The Corps had a busy weekend as we performed at the Maine Highland Games in Brunswick on Saturday, August 16th and at the Great Falls Balloon Festival on Sunday, August 17th.

The Corps had a tent on "Clan Row" at the Games and members had a great time chatting with people and selling items with the Corps logo on them. We also had a great reception from the crowd at the Balloon Festival and look forward to hopefully returning in 2009.

07/12/08 - The Corps marched in the Scarborough 350th Parade in Scarborough, Maine. We met Sen. Susan Collins after the parade and she had her photo taken with the Corps.

07/04/08 - The Corps marched in the July 4th Parade in Augusta on a beautiful summer day. The route was great and went from the Shaw's parking lot on Western Ave to Fort Western. The Corps was awarded the "Judges' Choice" trophy from the City of Augusta for our performance in the parade.

05/20/08 - At our 5-week Meeting we voted in a new member and changed the membership status of two other members. Rob Kamilewicz was voted in as a new member. He is a Firefighter/EMT with the Cape Elizabeth Fire Department. Paige Estes went from Junior Corps to Full Member and Mike Mowles went from Honorary Member to Associate Member. We also voted in Brendan Murphy as Corps Treasurer. Congratulations to everyone!

05/18/08 - The Corps enjoyed a great afternoon on Sunday, May 18 with the Dunlap Highland Band. They invited us to join them for a BBQ and practice at Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth. We were able to get to know each another better and to exchange information and ideas on music, marching, and equipment. We appreciate their hospitality and friendship and plan on reciprocating in the near future.

04/14/08 - Drum Major Billy Jordan from Scotland and two other instructors (Andy Lyons of the Tweedvale Pipe Band and Kenny Forbes of the Vale of Atholl Pipe Band) are coming to the US to put on Drum Major training with the Regimental Drum Majors Association. Thanks to one of our Corps members, these great instructors have offered to travel to Maine for one night and give our Corps and invited guests a mini workshop. This is is not only for Drum Majors as all the instructors are very accomplished musicians. D/M Jordan is looking to work with pipers on dress & drill and the drummers with whatever they would like to work on.

Date:  Tuesday, April 22, 2008 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM.
Location: TBD (either Freeport or Portland area)
Cost: $25.00/person

Before final arrangements are made, I need to know who would like to attend this event. I think this would be best to keep to a small size to get more 1-on-1 instruction, so would like to offer it to the Drum Majors, Pipe Majors, Pipe Sgts/Cpls, and Drum Sgts/Cpls first. People who can take this training and return to your band to train others.

This is a very rare opportunity that has been presented to us and the chance to have instructors of this caliber in such a small setting is normally cost prohibitive and probably won't come along again for some time.

Sorry for the short notice, but we just got this offer last week. If you can let me know by Tues. 04/15 that would be great. E-mail - Marc Arnold

04/05/08 - The Corps website is being updated. We are adding a brief bio and a photo of each member, which can be viewed by clicking on the name in the Corps Roster in the "About The Corps" page. If you cannot click on the name that means the member bio page has not been created, yet.

We have been given a date for the broadcast of the Incredible Maine television show that was done on the Corps. It will be shown on MPBN on Saturday, May 3 at 10:30 AM. We hope to have copies of the DVD available in the future. To see information about the show, go to the  Incredible Maine schedule page.

The poster and brochures advertising the 2008 Maine Highland Games are out and Drum Major Vaughn Dyer is featured prominently. He was the Field Drum Major for the 2007 Games and has been honored again by being asked to be the Field Drum Major for the 2008 Games. To see the poster, click here. Great job, Vaughn!

02/23/08 - The Corps held its first Burn's Dinner on February 23. Burns Dinners are a traditional, formal, Scottish dinner held in honor of the birth of Scottish poet Robert Burns. About 23 Corps members and their guests enjoyed an evening of haggis, Burns poems, singing, music, and a presentation with pictures from our 2007 events. The beginning of the ceremony was filmed for a show about the Corps being filmed for "Incredible Maine". We had a great time and plan on making this an annual event. 

02/12/08 - On February 12, we had a 5-week Business Meeting. Mike Lundin was appointed to fill the Vice President position temporarily held by Vaughn Dyer. Chris Cota was appointed to fill the Secretary position that had been held by Rob Morris. Rob requested to resign from the position due to outside commitments and his desire to spend more time in his Acting Pipe Sergeant role. Brendan Murphy was appointed as Assistant Treasurer to help the elected Treasurer. Brendan has a background in accounting and has ably volunteered to assist us.

01/27/08 - The Corps had a great evening out when numerous members went to see the Coldstream Guards and Royal Scots Dragoon Guards play at the Civic Center in Portland. We went out to dinner before hand at the Holiday Inn, went to the concert, then had a céilidh after at Brian Boru's. We were joined by members of the Guards and Dragoons, as well as some members from the Dunlap Highland Band, St, Andrews Society of Maine, and others. For photos, see our Gallery Section. A great time was had by all!!

01/19/08 - The Corps performed at the Maine Association of Police annual awards banquet held at the Italian Heritage Center in Portland. The Corps posted the Colors and played several tunes before enjoying a great dinner with MAP members. Click here to see our thank you letter from MAP Executive Director Paul Gaspar.