An open letter to the vandals

Dean vandals,

I don't know why you did what you did. I don't understand why you would punch a hole into the 77 Lancers trailer, or rip off the sponsor decals, or hang color guard poles from the basketball hoop. I'm not sure what's going on in your life to make you hate the Lancers, or where your parents have been the last few years when you should have learned that this is definitely not cool.

But I'm not going to judge you. I would, however, like you let you know a few things you might not have known about the kids who march in the 77 Lancers.

I know them pretty well. My daughter is one of them, of course, as I've stated here many, many times. She's the hardest working person I've ever met. But she's just one of 85 kids who are some of the most committed you'll ever meet. I'm sure you've met some of them.

They've been meeting off and on for the past few months, but really it's been the last week that they've gone from knowing nothing to learning an entire drill. These kids spent a week of 9 a.m. to 9 p.m practices working extremely hard to get as good as they could get. Sore feet, sore shoulders, sun burn, aching knees. And they do it all because they love to perform for the community.

The night before your little vandalism party, they were competing in the Lake Crystal Duck Days Battle of the Bands, going head to head with their arch-rivals from Park Center. They came together as a group, each section doing its part, all parts working in harmony, or as close to harmony as they could get (they are, after all, still learning, still working hard, still getting better). True team work. When it was done, there was joy. They'd won. They hugged. A few of them cried. They applauded for the other bands. And when it was over and all the other bands had cleared out, the Lancers stayed behind and cleaned up the awards area. Why? Because along with learning to be a good marching band, they're learning how to be good citizens, and learning what it means to be a source of positive energy.

How many of you were participating in this vandalism last night? How much team work did it take to pull this off? How rewarding was it to do enough damage to our organization that we needed to call the police, and will likely have to spend hundreds, maybe a thousand dollars to fix that trailer (a trailer that hauls uniforms, instruments, water, etc. to all our parades.)? Are you proud? Did you finish what you'd done and step back and say, "Damn, we're good, and we worked really hard for that, we're proud of what we've accomplished" ???

No. Of course not.

Like I said, I won't judge you. But I will judge your actions, and I think what you did was ... sad. Our kids will move on without missing a beat, of course. A little vandalism isn't about to dampen the spirits of 85 kids who are focused on working as a team and doing their very best. If what we saw in the parking lot this morning was your best, well then ... wow. I wish you the best of luck.

Our Lancers are off to Owatonna this morning, Waconia this afternoon, Hutchinson tomorrow and a bunch more before they head out to Traverse City, Mich. for the National Cherry Festival.

Everywhere they go they represent the community with pride.

How do you represent your community?

Sincerely,

Robb