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Greetings from the JMU Marching Royal Dukes Alumni Chapter! As we move through another exciting year, we’re proud to share progress, plans, and partnerships that continue to strengthen the legacy of the MRDs and the alumni who carry that legacy forward. Let's dive in... 📍 Practice Field Update: What We Know So Far Our MRD Alumni Chapter President, Dan Everard, recently reported some news to me during the 2025 Madison Alumni Conference and tuned in during an informal insider look at the location of the to-be-announced MRD practice field and its inclusion in JMU’s most recent early draft of JMU's 2027 Campus Vision "Master Plan." While we’re thrilled to see this vital piece of the MRD experience acknowledged in University planning, we want to be transparent: no final renderings, construction dates, or official commitments have been made yet. "If you want to look at the 2017 Master Plan - check it out here," mentions Dan. "You will see that some of the items on that have happened, some have not. Some of the ones that have not, have moved onto the 2027 draft, some have been modified or dropped." "It is critical that we keep the building on the plan moving forward in order to bring it to fruition." The below map showcases its tentative location, which varies a bit from past locations that we've been made aware of.  Rendering of an early draft of JMU's 2027 Campus Vision "Master Plan," near term. You can see the red arrow showcasing the new location of the practice facility which has changed a bit, now closer to the i-81 Corridor adjacent to the reimagined Village Area. The facility appears to feature a roof and reflects the current regulation size football field, but will likely be a slightly smaller-scale field.  A closeup early draft rendering of the East Campus Precinct, near term, in view. While we await more details, several chapter leadership members and at-large JMU Alumni Board leadership team members are focused on advocating for a field that supports the excellence and impact of the MRD program. We'll also remain engaged in conversations with the University so we may begin private fundraising among our group. 🎉 Alumni Pep Band Assembling at JMU Night @ Richmond Flying Squirrels Mark your calendars for Wednesday, July 2, 2025, at 5:00 PM — the MRD Alumni Pep Band is hitting the stands at JMU Night with the Richmond Flying Squirrels at The Diamond! 🥁⚾ Join fellow Dukes as we celebrate JMU spirit with the baseball community. Alumni Pep Band members will officially start the evening—partnering with Duke Dog for first pitch and fun photo ops. If you're performing with the pep band, your game ticket is on us! Not playing but still want to attend? Tickets are available for supporters to cheer alongside the band. This is your chance to show off that unmistakable purple and gold energy. Whether you’re playing an instrument or just cheering in the stands, come be part of MRD tradition in a fresh setting. RSVP soon if you want to play, and grab your tickets if you’re excited to watch! Huge thanks to Expert Volunteer Earl Shaffer and MRD Alumni President Dan Everard for planning and coordinating logistics. More information is on our events page. 👕 Four Years with Boathouse Sports — And Counting! We’re entering our fourth year partnering with Boathouse Sports, creating new ways for MRD Alumni to proudly show off their band spirit. Your gear purchases do more than look great — they directly support the MRD Alumni Chapter Fund, helping us offset costs associated with MRD Alumni Band Weekend and contributing to the Bill Posey Scholarship Endowment. This includes design development by our chapter leadership team, the sale period itself, manufacturing and shipping of the goods, and finally, a sales and fundraising recap with the JMU Alumni Association. A portion of the profits from each item benefit an area of our leadership team's choosing — and additionally, a proportion of the overall item cost base price benefits the JMU Foundation. In general, we always encourage alumni to purchase only products that bear the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) official seal, typically in the form of a holographic sticker affixed on the clothing's sale tag or packaging. Keep an eye on our social media platforms for upcoming alumni gear drops and seasonal campaigns, including a 2025 holiday season store that will include several new cold weather gear offerings that are unique (hint hint.... GORE-TEX® is coming!!). We’re thankful for this partnership that combines spirit-wear and real impact.  Boathouse Sports® is an American clothing manufacturer that has supplied and facilitated our officially licensed collegiate clothing line, including our Stevenson Jacket (seen worn on the left and the right by myself and Andrew Foote — sorry for sandwiching you, Gracie!). 💜 A Record-Setting 2025 Giving Day JMU Giving Day 2025 marked a historic milestone for the Marching Royal Dukes program. In just one day, 686 donors raised $64,387 through individual gifts and several competitive Giving Day challenges. This remarkable success shows what our extended MRD family is capable of when we unite behind our shared love of music, community and tradition. Thank you to everyone who contributed, our MRD Alumni Giving Day ambassadors, the Marching Royal Dukes staff's personal appeal, and to those who cheered us on from the sidelines. In the coming months, we'll present an online seminar if you're interested in donating a part of your estate to the Marching Royal Dukes or to the University. That program will be led by Kathy Sarver, JMU's Director of Planned Giving. Be on the lookout for information on how to register. 🌐 Digital Growth: Launching Our New Alumni Website This year brought some exciting updates to how we stay connected. We officially launched alumni.jmumrd.org — a comprehensive new digital home for MRD Alumni. The site includes:
This platform was built with sustainability and long-term engagement in mind. The site is hosted and maintained at no charge to our organization thanks to generous private support from our chapter leadership team.  Our new website solves several longstanding communications challenges, namely, how we organize and communicate the different steps required to attend MRD Alumni Band Weekend. Further enhancements and communications properties will come soon. 🎺 Speaking of MRD Alumni Band Weekend... This year, we’re planning several new features to make your experience even better:
It’s the perfect time to reunite with friends, relive the glory days, and make new memories in purple and gold. Come home and experience it for yourself. At this point in time, you may book your hotel room (we recommend using one of the hotel blocks on our web page, as the MRD Alumni receive heavily discounted rates). More information is available at our dedicated "Prepare for Alumni Band Weekend" page.  Design of the hard-side name tags, featuring a strong magnetic snap backing, and an engraved name, grad year and a hometown of choice (helps act as an easy conversation starter). The name tags will be offered for $15 plus a $7 shipping fee. If you place an order to pickup at Alumni Band Weekend, you'll avoid paying the shipping fee. A late-summer sale of the name tags will take place, then again ahead of MRD Alumni Band Weekend. 🛠️ Building Better: Strengthening Our Alumni Structure 2025 is a year of rebuilding and reorganization behind the scenes. President Dan Everard and I have been strengthening ties with key strategic advisors, like alumni board members Jim Sheldrake and Michelle Turenne (not to mention... can you believe we now have five alumni on the JMU Alumni Association's board of directors?!). Jim is focused on ensuring that we have a rigid, well-supported bridge with the JMU Alumni Association. As a board member, he's also taken interest in the operational excellence of the alumni association more broadly. Michelle is advocating any needs on behalf of our chapter leadership — and she's laser focused on the mechanics of early-stage fundraising and development opportunities for the aforementioned Practice Field. Dan has been determining the specifics of our new Richmond Flying Squirrels appearance, and organizing another amazing MRD Alumni Band Weekend event. It always amazes me the effort and care that goes into planning our wonderful Alumni Band Weekend event each November.  Several MRD Alumni were in attendance at the Madison Alumni conference in early June 2025, including JMU Alumni Association board members Jim Sheldrake, Tripp Hughes, Dana Gillis, Michelle Turenne and Paul Pohto; MRD Alumni President Dan Everard and several MRD Alumni that lead other alumni chapters, such as Ray Mckiver. The conference seeks to bridge together knowledge, ideas and best practices between JMU Alumni chapters across the globe — and provide chapter leaders with development opportunities and an insider look at how the University is strategically growing. I have been preparing sponsorship options for individuals and businesses to support MRD Alumni programs; understanding our communications deficits and advocating for interim and long-term solutions with the JMU Alumni Association; and continuing brand operations with gear sale fundraisers, our hard-side name tag project, and several new communications design/animation projects in collab with a few wonderful volunteers (to be named once the work is released to the world)! Dan, Phil Pollard, and I have contributed significant man-hours to the production and launch of alumni.jmumrd.org. Undoubtedly, I've unintentionally omitted a volunteer's hard work on behalf of the MRD Alumni. Please do reach out so we may recognize your efforts, if so. 🔧 The Long Game: Creating a Volunteer-Led Data and Outreach Team By 2026, we plan to have a fully operational volunteer team managing alumni contact data, engagement, and MRD Alumni community updates. We know this has been a pain point for us in the past — and we appreciate your patience as we lay the groundwork. For the first time ever, this year, we've invited all graduating seniors to quickly submit their personal email addresses to our email list subscription so we don't loose touch with them after their JMU email accounts are disabled post-graduation. While this small example may feel insignificant, it's this future volunteer team that will track and execute small steps like this to help us grow the chapter in measured, important ways. The to-be-established team will help us deliver more consistent updates, targeted communications, and meaningful engagement across all alumni generations. Please do express your volunteering interest by writing to us: [email protected]. Thank you for your continued support of the MRDs and this amazing alumni community. We are proud of the momentum we’ve built together — and even more excited for what’s ahead. Once a Marching Royal Duke, always...
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