Columbus Saints executive director LeRon Carlton wanted to be as clear as possible.
“We love doing drum corps,” he said. “But drum corps isn’t why we were created.”
The Columbus, Ohio organization fields an active all-age Drum Corps Associates ‘A’ Class corps and has performed at a variety of Drum Corps International Tour events in recent summers.
But its mission, in many ways, lies outside of competitive performances.
Ultimately, the Columbus Saints are in the business of creating opportunity, supporting their local community, and fostering growth in students.
“We were created with a community aim and a community goal, and that has always been our priority,” Carlton said. “Our focus is always on community engagement, first and foremost, and then the competitive drum corps aspect is built into that.”
In pursuing their mission of supporting the individuals and lives in and around its circle of influence, Columbus Saints’ efforts have reached beyond the football field and into the classroom.
Since June of 2022 the organization has been engaged in an active partnership with Wilberforce University — a historically Black university, founded in 1856 in the Dayton, Ohio area — to provide students an accessible path not only to drum corps, but to a collegiate education.
“Our mission statement is, ‘Focusing on teamwork, discipline and respect to the performing arts in central Ohio,’” Carlton said. “We're not doing this because it's going to help the corps; we're doing it because it’s what the organization was founded to do.”
The offering that stems from the partnership between Columbus Saints and Wilberforce University is simple.
Members who perform with Columbus Saints and complete a full drum corps season in good standing have the opportunity to have up to $10,000 per year put directly toward a Wilberforce University degree and a place in the school’s marching band program.
The partnership was originally born out of a relationship between Columbus Saints and Dr. Virgil Goodwine, Wilberforce University’s director of instrumental music and ensembles.
“You have your audition waived to be a member of their band, and automatically are accepted into their band,” Carlton said. “And then (Goodwine) has scholarship funds available every year up to $10,000 that, essentially, he and the administrators pre-qualify any of our members for.”
The connection between Columbus Saints and Goodwine dates back to the early 2000s, in the organization’s early years of operation as a drum line.
“There was this group in Dayton, Ohio, and they used to have drum line battles, so we used to go there and we'd battle with groups there,” Columbus Saints president Marshall Cheatham said. “One of those kids (Goodwine) that was in one of those drum lines went on and got his doctorate degree, and he's now in charge of the Wilberforce marching band. He was tasked with building the program from scratch.”
For one student, Columbus Saints tuba player Justin DeWitt, the program has afforded him, in essence, a free education.
“I love it,” he said. “The teachers are really one-on-one; it's a smaller school, so you can ask the teachers any questions. And you get more personal time with them, so you can understand the subjects better.”
DeWitt, who joined the Columbus Saints after returning from service in the U.S. Marine Corps, said he wasn’t even sure if a college degree was in his plans before the door to Wilberforce University was opened to him.
Since beginning classes in the fall semester of 2022, DeWitt said his time at Wilberforce has already provided many positive experiences.
“(Columbus Saints’ partnership with Wilberforce) made it more of an option for me and made me want to pursue it,” he added. “I'm going to school for free, so that was a huge, huge, huge part of making me want to go there.”
One of the more unique aspects of DeWitt’s experience, as Carlton mentioned, is that he’s one of a small handful of white students on a majority-Black Wilberforce campus.
DeWitt referred to it as a “culture shock,” but spoke highly of the experience and the new perspectives it’s already afforded him.
“It's a completely different side of things,” he said. “And I was honestly happy to experience something different, something I wasn’t used to.”
Ultimately, Carlton, Cheatham and the Columbus Saints’ administration envision a bright future for their organization’s partnership with Wilberforce University.
They hope to see it lead not only to many more students’ lives being impacted, but also toward further bridges between the drum corps and HBCU marching band communities.
“We want more students to go (to Wilberforce), and we want to pave the way for anyone who wants to go to an HBCU, but who also wants to do drum corps,” Carlton said. “We also want to have students who go to our local HBCUs to be able to come to the corps and get that experience as well.”
And, of course, if lives in Ohio and beyond are positively changed by the work being done, Columbus Saints’ true mission will be fulfilled.
“We have something called the Saints creed,” Carlton said.
“To be a saint, it takes discipline,” he continued. “To be a saint, it takes endurance. To be a saint, it takes leadership. To be a saint, it takes loyalty. As saints, we must be of one accord. We will not give up. We will be positive towards our brothers and sisters. No need to talk, put it on the field is how we live. To be a saint, you must stand tall and firm at all times.”
“To be a saint, you must make the worse better and the better great,” he concluded. “I say all that because that's what we're doing. We're making a worse situation better.”