Managing Pep: Any Way You Want It

michelleHey everyone! I can’t believe how quickly this year has flown by, it seems like just yesterday I sat on Skype for a few hours’ worth of elections. I’ve had an incredible experience getting to know lots of different members of the band and have been extremely fortunate to work with four awesome conductors throughout the year, with Anita Mbogoni ’15 and Victoria Dye ’16 conducting us this fall! The fall semester hasn’t been exceptionally busy for the Pep Band due to Marching Band, but we definitely have had a few unique events. We played two songs for a wedding that took place at the farmer’s market and we also took over for the marching band at the football game at Colgate! Throughout the semester, we also supported the women’s field hockey and volleyball teams, the men’s and women’s basketball teams as well as the men’s and women’s hockey teams. We’ve been fortunate enough to gain a few new members this fall and held our annual “Hockey 101” event to teach the new members the traditions of Lynah. We had a really exciting homecoming weekend since the Red/White hockey game fell immediately following the football game. We were glad to have our alums in the white band (white band is far superior), thanks so much for coming out! Our only two road trips this fall were to Colgate for football and to Madison Square Garden for Cornell versus Penn State hockey in the Frozen Apple game on November 29th.  Our social chairs also planned our first ever Pep Band Board Game Bash, where we all brought board games to play together and had snacks, which proved to be a great success! We also plan to co-host a charity skate event with the men’s and women’s hockey teams on December 12th. Elections for new leadership will take place on December 7th and I look forward to working with the newly elected manager for 2015. In 2015, the pep band will travel to Union and RPI on January 16 and 17, to Dartmouth and Harvard on February 14/15 and to Brown/Yale on February 27 and 28. We look forward to seeing you! I wanted to just end by thanking Alex and Michaela for being so fantastic to work with this year, I’m happy that the bands have been able work so closely and easily together! I’ve really had a great experience and I appreciate everything that the Big Red Pep Band and Marching Bands have done for me. Good luck to everyone next year!

— Michelle Yanda ’15, Pep Band Manager ‘14