All AuburnEveryday

A Band’s Eye ViewAn Away Game From the

AUMB’s Perspective

Senior ProfileAddressing MS

with Mallory Gilliland

Pine Hills Literacy Project

Making Reading Fun for the Boys and Girls Club

December 2012

About the Editor

All Auburn Everyday is comprised of a sampling of stories I wrote as part of the Style and Design class at Auburn University. As part of the requirements for the class, we wrote articles throughout the semester for a local Auburn newspaper (The Corner News) and the Auburn Family social networking blog site. The stories I included in this magazine are some of my favorites that I got to write about students, events and organizations important to the Auburn community. In writing these stories, I hoped to

capture the different and unique passions found throughout the Auburn community. These

passions help make up one of the

most individual university campuses in the nation. Everyone on Auburn’s campus has a specific passion they wish to share with others, and I found mine as a member of the Auburn University Marching Band. Getting to share my

passion for, and the experiences I’ve had with the AUMB led to many other opportunites for sharing the passions and experiences of other students on campus.

In this Issue:

3

7

3 A Band’s Eye View Pt. I & II

7 Auburn University Drum Majors

11 Live Laugh Run

13 Senior Profile

15 Gnu’s Room

17 Pine Hills Literacy Project

11

13

15 17

This past weekend, I found out that at 3:30 a.m., even the floor of a charter bus makes a wonderful bed (with plenty of pillows and

blankets of course).

The Auburn University Marching Band took a pep band of 120 members to help cheer on our football team this past weekend as they took on their first SEC opponent of the year, Mississippi State University.

With only one day to travel back and forth from Auburn, and get to the stadium in time to play at Tiger Walk, the pep band trips can sometimes have an early start. This past weekend was no exception. Promises of Chick-fil-A biscuits waiting for us in Mississippi had us all up and semi-awake at 3:00 a.m. Saturday morning ready to load the three buses that

would take us the five hours to Starkville.Falling asleep just outside the Auburn city limits, many woke up at the arrival on a foreign campus, just in time to change into uniforms and get ready to unload

the buses.

“My favorite part of pep band trips would probably be just going and getting to experience everybody else’s home stadiums and the environment that they normally play in,” said Madison Argo, one of the drum majors for the 2012 AUMB. “I know we’re all used to the electric feel of Jordan-Hare, but it’s really exciting to me to get to go and experience what other people experience

most Saturdays.”

Choirs of cowbells are the overriding sound in Starkville on game days, and from the time we stepped off the buses until we got back on that afternoon, the

A Band’s Eye View

“I know we’re all used to the electric feel of

Jordan-Hare, but it’s really exciting to me to get to go and experience what other

people experience most Saturdays.”

BY: ANNA HEWLETT

sound seemed to follow us everywhere. However, we did see some friendly faces, as there were plenty of Auburn fans at Tiger Walk waiting to welcome our players to the stadium.

After a quick stop at the concession stands (a rare treat for AUMB members) we sat down under the enormous jumbo-tron in Davis Wade stadium, ready for another game of Auburn Tiger football.

“Pep band trips are really important in the AUMB because we help bring a lot of that energy and spirit from Jordan-Hare to the away trips,” said Taylor Hall, a third year AUMB member. “It really helps the team and the fans get into the game.”

Whether it’s playing or cheering with the cheerleaders, the AUMB is on their feet for most of the game and it is our job is to keep the momentum going and bring a little bit of Jordan-Hare atmosphere with us wherever we travel.

“I think it is really important for at least some of the AUMB to go to every game because to a pretty large extent the AUMB kind of helps keep the momentum

going for our fans that are there,” said fourth year marcher Jimmy Kaczmarek. “It is really important to have that sort of energy and momentum every game, whether or not it is in Jordan-Hare.”

As hard and as much as we can play during a game, defeat can be a hard pill to swallow, but win or lose and wherever we are, we will always play our Alma Mater at the end of every game.

With Cowbells following us the entire way, we walked out of the stadium and back to the buses to prepare for the journey home. Eating free lunch and watching ESPN is always a great way to unwind after a tough game.

On the trip back, I sat in a seat instead of the floor, and got to watch our police escorts magically pull us through traffic toward home (which means driving on the wrong side of the road every once in a while).

As a member of the AUMB, I can say that not every game turns out exactly the way you want it to, but no matter the outcome on the field, away game trips are always a great experience.

An Away Game from the AUMB’s Perpective

ABOVE: The new Auburn University Marching Band truck accompanies

the group on all away trips

BELOW: Members of the band help load luggage and instruments onto

charter buses before the trip

A Band’s Eye View Part II

Waking up for a 6 a.m. practice is probably not the number one thing on most college student’s to-do lists. Getting to be a part of

the AUMB requires some early wake up calls, especially in a season where night games are a rare commodity, but cheering along with the rest of the Auburn family every Saturday is definitely worth it.

This past Saturday was Homecoming, which almost guarantees an early game time and an even earlier practice every year. I fully prepared myself and, calling on experiences from the past three Homecoming games, decided to set four different alarms on Friday night (most set to go off to the tune of ‘War Eagle’) to make sure I got to the field on time.

Wearing our blue pullovers and khaki pants, 380 of us convene on the band practice field off of Hemlock Dr. for game day morning rehearsal. As warm-ups begin, we can actually hear our echo bouncing off the stadium in the distance.

At morning rehearsal, we run through the shows we will perform at the game that day, so this past week we practiced pregame and the homecoming court music.Homecoming is always a special treat for the AUMB because we welcome our past members back to the plains with alumni band. We also practice our music with them during morning rehearsal and then gather in the center of the field for

BY: ANNA HEWLETT

one of our most precious traditions.

“My favorite part of game day is when we gather and sing the Alma Mater after rehearsal,” said Gerritt Keaton, a second year member of the marching band. “It provides a conclusion to our rehearsal and also starts off the game day experience.”

This week, led by past marching band director Dr. Johnnie Vinson, the entire band and all our participating alumni members circled around a ladder in the center of the field to sing the Auburn University

“My favorite thing about

game day is running out of the tunnel for pregame and

seeing the stadium just light up with enthusiasm

before the game”

A Home Game with the AUMB

Alma Mater.

After morning rehearsal, those of us chosen to play at Tiger Walk rush to change into our uniforms and grab a coveted chicken biscuit on our way to the pep rally locations.

We get the chance to see the Auburn game day spirit in full swing when walking across campus in uniform on Saturdays. Members of the Auburn family jump at the chance to greet us with a ‘War Eagle’ and some even offer water and food from their tailgates.

Our pep band gathers at the corner of Donahue and Samford, and we welcome the players with a pep rally as the team buses appear.

After Tiger Walk, our next task is the spirit march, where the smaller pep bands start marching in from four different locations on campus and meet at the corner of Heisman and Donahue for the Four Corners Pep Rally.

Alongside the cheerleaders, Tiger Paws and Aubie, the AUMB helps pump up the crowd before we march into Gate 9. After a short break, we perform the ‘March Around’ where the band marches around the field playing ‘War Eagle’ and ‘Glory’ for the crowd.

We get another short break before gathering in the South end zone tunnel to perform in one of our university’s most exciting game day traditions.Running out of the tunnel to perform pregame is an exciting and adrenaline-pumping experience, and even though I’ve gotten to march pregame at the Georgia Dome, Raymond James Stadium and the National

Championship, these places hold no comparison to what it is like to march our pregame show in Jordan-Hare.

“My favorite thing about game day is running out of the tunnel for pregame and seeing the stadium just light up with enthusiasm before the game,” said Richard Martin, a senior and fourth year member of the AUMB.

The crowd noise is usually deafening, and it doesn’t matter which opponent we are playing or how many times we perform; I am still in awe of the outpouring of love and support from the Auburn family every time I step out onto that field.

When we finish pregame, we head up into the stands to perform our most important job of the day: keeping the spirit high in the stadium and cheering on our team.

“I think the band’s important because it gets everyone fired up leading up to the game and through the various game day activities,” said Jacob Bell, a fourth year member of the AUMB. “Before the game and inside the game it really keeps the crowd energized and into the game, even when things may not be going the way we would hope.”

No matter what the score is at the end of the game, we end the day as it began, with singing our Alma Mater together in the stands.

The AUMB prides itself on striving to be the best we possibly can throughout our busy game day and it is an honor to be a part of the Auburn family’s game day experience.---As my final year with the Auburn University Marching Band comes to a close, I can’t help but think how blessed I have been to be a part of this wonderful program. The friends I’ve made and the experiences we’ve had together in the AUMB will always stay with me and I will always be proud to say that I’ve gotten to be a part of one of Auburn’s greatest traditions.

A typical Auburn student may only know the drum majors as the white uniforms that throw a mace in the ground before pregame

at football games, but getting to be a drum major is a bit more than getting to spearhead the turf with a pointy stick.

This year’s drum majors for the Auburn University Marching Band have already gotten a fair share of spotlight this season. They have already performed at six games, including pregame at the season opening Chick-fil-A kickoff game, where the AUMB was on a national stage.

Rachel Glenn, the head drum major this year, is a senior in music education from Decatur, Ala. She played piccolo in the marching band for three years before becoming drum major and has always felt the AUMB was more than just an organization.

“To me the Auburn University Marching Band means family,” Glenn said. “We really support each other through the thick and thin, and to me, that’s what family is.”

Glenn explained that even though the marching band is one of the biggest organizations on campus, the bond that students have to each other and the organization is like no other.

Emily Gray, one of the assistant drum majors also thinks of the AUMB as a second family, and believes the family attitude stems from the overall attitude of the Auburn experience.

“To me the Auburn University Marching Band means family,’ Glenn said.

‘We really support each other through the thick

and thin, and to me, that’s what family is.”

BY: ANNA HEWLETT

Profile:The Auburn UniversityDrum Majors

“Auburn is my second home,” Gray said. “Auburn cultivates a family spirit and we definitely have that in the band.”

The Jacksonville, Ala. native is a senior in secondary music education and was a member of the trumpet line for three years before taking one of the three top leadership positions in the band. Gray was also a drum major in high school and she feels that experience helped lead her to pursue the job at Auburn.

“It felt like it came naturally [in high school],” Gray said. “It is a service leadership and a challenge that I love to take on every Saturday.”

Madison Argo, a senior from Alexander City, Ala., also believes that high school had a huge effect on his decision to try out for the position this year.

“I really wanted to become a drum major of the Auburn band,” Argo said. “It’s something that I’ve aspired to do since high school.”

Like his fellow drum majors, Argo is also majoring in music education, and he believes the experiences he has gotten from being in one of the band’s top leadership positions will help him the rest of his life.

“I really think, as a future music educator, that it will give me a boost in being able to teach a band program later in life,” Argo said. “It would really give me those skills necessary to know what goes on behind the scenes of a band program and be really successful.”

Argo believes that having the opportunity to be in one of the drum major positions has already given him life experience that can carry over into the real world.These life lessons and experiences will be learned by a

new set of drum majors next year, and the process to choose the new trio is quickly approaching.

The audition to become an Auburn University drum major is an extensive one, and clinics preceding the audition process begin at the end of October.

Argo explained that the process has four basic stages and includes an interview, teaching a group of band members a marching fundamental, conducting the full band, and performing a mace routine.

“One of the biggest things is conducting the full band and responding to game day situations that our director gives you,” Argo said. “You don’t know what he’s going to ask you to do, so you have to be completely prepared for anything.”

This preparation for the audition is just the beginning, since, once chosen, the new drum majors work non-stop through the spring semester and summer up until the end of the next football season.

This commitment takes an enormous level of dedication and Glenn advises the next set of drum majors to, above all, have fun.

“It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort, but that opportunity to give back to an organization that’s given so much to me has been so awesome,” Glenn said. “I hope that the next person that is in this position will enjoy that and will take advantage of all the unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.”

The dedication that brought them this far will definitely help this trio sail through the rest of the year. The entire Auburn family will be proudly watching as the three drum majors take their place on the field for the final pregame show of the season and display what it truly means to live out our creed through work, hard work.

“I really wanted to become a drum major of the

Auburn band,” said Argo. “It’s something that I’ve aspired to do since high

school.”

“Her love, not just for music, but people in general, is the inspiration

behind the name of the race.”

The fourth annual Live. Laugh. Run. 5K, hosted by Auburn’s chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi, will be held on October 7, 2012, the

Sunday after the Auburn-Arkansas game.

The race is held in memory of Sarah Anderson, a member of both Auburn’s Kappa Kappa Psi chapter and the marching band, who passed away in a car accident in November 2009.

Registration on the day of the race will start at noon on the Haley Center concourse and the race will begin at 1 p.m., with the awards ceremony immediately following the conclusion of the run.

Live. Laugh. Run.

There will also be refreshments available after the race.

“We usually have the race in the spring,” said Katie Morgan, president of Auburn’s Kappa Kappa Psi chapter. “This year we decided to have it in the fall so that we could bring in more people that may not have known about it before.”

All proceeds from the race will go to the Auburn University Bands and racers can expect special guests like Aubie the Tiger to cheer them on as they run.

Anderson was a sophomore from Robertsdale, Ala. majoring in music education and also played piccolo in the Auburn University Marching Band.

“Her love, not just for music, but people in general is the inspiration behind the name of the race,” said Richard Martin, a Kappa Kappa Psi and marching band member. “Sarah lived life to the fullest every day.”

Along with the 5K, a scholarship also exists in Anderson’s name. The Sarah Darelle Anderson Memorial Scholarship was established in the Auburn University Foundation by Sarah’s family, Kappa Kappa Psi and friends of the Auburn University Bands, with

BY: ANNA HEWLETT

the intention of providing scholarships for students in the band program based on academic merit and financial need.

“Kappa Kappa Psi is the National Honorary Band Service Fraternity,” said Elise Munz, treasurer of Auburn’s Kappa Kappa Psi chapter. “At Auburn’s chapter we do service related to the marching band, which involves things like helping with gameday procedures and we also do community outreach through music.”

Auburn’s Kappa Kappa Psi chapter, the Pi chapter, was originally brought to Auburn in 1926, but was re-chartered in June of 1992. The Pi chapter supports the Auburn Band Program, as well as the Auburn community.

Members of the Pi chapter have played with local high school bands at their football games and formed a small ensemble that entertains at different retirement homes in the Auburn area.

The official website for the race is www.livelaughrun5k.eventbrite.com. Registration is $17 and a t-shirt is included in registration before September 29. Anyone who is not able to run this year can still donate on the race’s website.

“We also have a Facebook event titled ‘Live Laugh Run 5K 2012’ and you can follow us on Twitter @KKPSIgnup,” said Morgan. “We are all really looking forward to it.”

And Support the AU Bands

Senior Profile:

Mallory GillilandBY: ANNA HEWLETT

It is normal to see Mallory Gilliland on the field during halftime at Auburn games with the rest of the Auburn University Danceline, but at

Homecoming on Nov. 3, she’ll be on the field for a different reason.

Gilliland, a senior in Hotel and Restaurant Management and captain of the Auburn University Danceline, is one of the top five nominees for the 2012 Miss Homecoming.

The Concordia, Kan., native was nominated by the Diamond Dolls and went through two rounds of interviews to become a Miss Homecoming candidate.

“A couple of my friends approached me and asked if I’d be interested and I said that I would,” said Gilliland. “There were 40 candidates originally and I went through the interviews with all of them and made it through to the top 20. Then I had another interview with five faculty members and the SGA president and they selected their top five.”

Each candidate has a platform that they help raise awareness for throughout their campaign, and Gilliland is especially passionate about the one she has chosen.

“I chose Multiple Sclerosis because my mom was diagnosed with it when I was in fifth grade, so it’s had a huge impact on my life and it’s something I feel like not a lot of people know about,” said Gilliland. “There’s no cure right now and you can only get worse once you’re diagnosed, so it’s something I’m really passionate about.”

Gilliland is also an active member of the Auburn campus community, and

participates in many organizations on campus, both

“I chose Multiple Sclerosis because my mom was diagnosed with it when I was in

5th grade, so it’s had a huge impact on my life”

within and outside of her major.

“My main organization that I spend most of my time with is the Danceline with the Auburn University Marching Band,” said Gilliland. “I’m also involved in several different honor societies.”

The Hospitality Honor Society counts Gilliland as a member, as well as the Hotel and Restaurant Management Student Advisory Board. The Board works with faculty within the major to help improve the curriculum for the program.

The 2009 Kansas Junior Miss winner was able to come to Auburn on a four year full-tuition scholarship and started out in Radio, Television and Film.

“I thought I wanted to be a TV anchor someday, but I decided that wasn’t really for me,” said Gilliland. “I did a lot of different personality tests and decided that I kind of wanted to go toward event planning. Hotel and Restaurant Management was one of the majors listed.”

Gilliland is honored to be one of the top five and is looking forward to Nov. 3.

“We’re planning a campaign and doing all of that and it’ll be up to the students to decide who wins.”

The Gnu’s Room book store on Gay Street is hosting their first fall festival on Saturday, Oct. 13 to raise money for the shop and local area literacy

projects.

The festival starts at noon and is being held at the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities at 101 S. Debardeleben St., more popularly known as ‘Pebble Hill.’

The festival is a fundraiser for The Gnu’s Room, a 501(c) 3 organization, which has recently undergone renovation and had to be closed for a short period of time.

Neal Kelly, owner of Waverly Woodcraft, has been doing the renovations for the book shop and wanted to

help them out.

“I’m pretty vested in the place now, being here and seeing what they do,” said Kelly. “I’ve done a lot of events…so Scott Waters from WEGL and I got together and just started moving with it.”

Admission for the festival is a recommended $5 donation and attendees will get to hear local area bands starting at 1:30 p.m., like Adventure the Great, Less than Heroes and Good Doctor.

“The Gnu’s Room hosts a lot of music performances and we love to put the spotlight on local groups,” said Tina Tatum, owner of The Gnu’s Room. “By providing a space, we’ve made friends with a lot of musicians in town and they like to come and play here.

The festival will be raising money for the shop, but Tatum also has bigger plans.

Gnu’s Room Festival Raises

Money for Local Literacy

BY: ANNA HEWLETT

“In addition to generating some more revenue to kind of complete what we had hoped to do renovation-wise, we also are trying to raise funds towards our next project which is going be called the ‘Gnu Mobile,” said Tatum. “It’s a literacy and arts and education program that will go into under-served communities around Auburn to provide arts and music education, tutoring,

and literacy training for folks who really need it.”

The ‘Gnu Mobile’ will be traveling to local schools and community organizations to help spread and promote literacy. Additional funds raised at the festival will go toward buying supplies and other resources needed to start that project.

“We’re still looking for a bus, car or van to make it ‘mobile’,” said Kelly. “If anyone in the community could donate a vehicle, then that would be a great step forward.”

The Gnu Mobile will be taking interested volunteers, willing to work as little as 45 minutes at a time, into

local schools to read to kids and help spread a love of literacy.

Attendees of the festival are also welcome to bring books as donations to help jumpstart this project.

Sponsors for the festival include WEGL, Standard Deluxe, Pebble Hill, Waverly Woodcraft, Waverly Soundcraft, the Southside Market, Mammoth Print Shop, and others.

There is no up front cost for sponsorship, and all sponsors are donating 10 percent or more of their sales from the festival to help the cause.

The festival is still looking for sponsors and anyone interested can contact Neal Kelly at (334)-275-0313.

For more information about The Gnu’s Room, the festival or volunteering, contact Tina Tatum at 334-821-5550 or visit www.thegnusroom.com.

“The Gnu’s Room hosts a lot of music performances and

we love to spotlight local groups”

Room 10 in the Lee County Boys and Girls club holds the Pine Hills Literacy Project, a great opportunity for Auburn students to get involved

in the community.

The project is an after-school program that works with students in the first through sixth grades to not only increase reading proficiency, but to help students develop a lifelong love of reading.

The founders of the project are childhood friends, Anne Daniels and Robert Gibbs, that grew up in Auburn and wanted to give greater educational opportunities to the children of their hometown.

Gibbs, the former White House Press Secretary, lives in Washington, D.C., but Daniels resides in Auburn and is a regular at the Boykin Community Center where the project is housed.

“We decided that that was just a shame in Auburn,

Pine Hills Project Makes Reading Fun for Boys and Girls Club

that we didn’t have a support system for these kids,” said Daniels. “So we just started buying books and we talked to the club and they let us use this room and basically we just decided that we would buy books and try and be fun reading for the kids.”

The project is kept going by volunteers from the university and financial donations from people and organizations in the Auburn community.

“Auburn football players come when it’s not football season and we’ve had Auburn basketball players when come when it’s not basketball,” said Daniels. “We’ve also had a lot of early childhood education, psychology, and social work majors come, and several sororities when they need service hours.”

Auburn athletes and students serve as mentors to the children in the program, read aloud to groups and help students on an individual basis with their reading skills.

The students in the program have also received special opportunities, like the chance to attend football and basketball games. Daniels says that their next outing

BY: ANNA HEWLETT

will be to Turner field in Atlanta for a Braves baseball game.

“We try to build in some fun incentives on top of trying to encourage them to read,” Daniels said.

One such donator to the project is the M.A.D.E. foundation, an organization started by Tony Barbee, head coach of the Auburn University men’s basketball team.

“Coach has started it since he’s come to Auburn to help out kids in the whole state of Alabama,” said Stephen Smith, executive director of the Auburn University men’s basketball team. “It helps out underprivileged and economically challenged kids, and helps out the organizations that help them.”

The foundation has already made many donations to the Pine Hills Project, including funds to buy books and other resources for the children to use. They even donated candy to the project last year for Halloween.The M.A.D.E. foundation held their second annual golf tournament on September 14, and the Pine Hills Project will be receiving some of the proceeds.

“We will use all the money that they provide to purchase books for the children,” said Daniels. “What’s great is that we have not advertised or solicited donations. They [the M.A.D.E. foundation] have been real good about calling us up.”

For more information about the Pine Hills Literacy project or the M.A.D.E. foundation, go to http://pinehillsliteracyproject.com/ and www.coachbarbee.com/MADE.swf.

“We just decided that we would buy books and try and be fun reading for

the kids”

annahewlett.com