Save the Date! 50th Anniversary and Alumni Day 2024 - September 6-7

Hello, MV Alumni!

This is your official invitation for our MV Alumni Day 2024 and 50th Anniversary Celebration on September 6-7. Please join us for a fun Friday night in Blacksburg and a special halftime performance at the Marshall game on Saturday!

We have venues and initial plans in place, but we’d like to get a better idea of how many might be attending and ask for your opinions on some events and additional options.

Would you mind helping us plan our celebration by filling out this quick RSVP google form?

https://bit.ly/mvalumni2024rsvp

Thank you, everyone - I’m looking forward to celebrating the MVs with you in September :)

Please help us spread the word on social media with this Save the Date graphic from Katie Hale:

Who's coming to MV Alumni Day 2023?

MV Flags in 70s uniforms

In case you were wondering who else would be attending this year, here’s an updated instrument and decade breakdown as of 10:00am today:

  • Total alumni registered: 119

  • Alumni marching halftime: 112

  • Decades represented:

    • 70s: 4

    • 80s: 14

    • 90s: 11

    • 00s: 16

    • 10s: 42

    • 20s: 32

  • Sections (marching halftime/attending):

    • Piccolos: 13/13

    • Clarinets: 16/16

    • Saxes: 9/9

    • Trumpets: 25/28

    • Horns: 3/4

    • Trombones: 12/13

    • Tones: 8/8

    • Tubas: 1/1

    • Percussion: 11/12

    • Flags: 14/15

Registration closes tonight, but there’s still time to join the fun!

Please visit https://www.spiritoftech.com/alumniday2023 for details.

MV Alumni Day 2023 - Updates!

Registration for MV Alumni Day 2023 is rolling along! We currently have 48 alumni registered and just under 2 weeks of registration to go!

REGISTER NOW: https://www.spiritoftech.com/alumniday2023

Like statistics? There’s a whole bunch at the end of this update!

NEWS (not just for Alumni Day):

  • Homecoming Parade on Friday Night: we have the green light to march this! More details to come.

  • Uniform Reminder: this year’s uniform for marching halftime and the parade is an MVAA polo and 👖👖👖JEANS👖👖👖

  • BYOBC (Bring Your Own Business Card): we’re working on a more official networking system for the future, but if you plan to attend alumni day this year, would you consider bringing a business card to share? Current MVs would love your help answering career questions (and maybe even a chance to intern or interview with your company!)

    • Don’t have a business card? We’ll have some cards available for you to write your info when you check-in on Friday or Saturday.

    • If you’re not coming this year and still want to help, you can use this google form to share your company info.

  • MV Pride Alumni Meetup Opportunity: Ashlyn McDonald wants to know if you might be interested in an MV Pride Meetup while you’re in Blacksburg. Please make sure to fill out this interest form ASAP if you’d like to participate!

  • Tau Beta Sigma Alumni: the current members would like to meet up with you and take a picture on gameday. More details coming soon!

  • Have you ever watched our MV Throwback playlist on YouTube? We have original pregame shows, the Disco Duck show, the first Hokie Pokie, and more to come!

  • The current MVs uploaded the ODU show to YouTube this weekend. They had 330 Strong on the field PLUS almost 600 high school students participating in MV for a Day and a whole line of twirlers!

  • Will you help us advertise MV Alumni Day 2023? Katie Hale produced these awesome graphics you can share on social media!

Registration statistics for MV Alumni Day 2023 as of Sunday, 9/10/2023:

  • Total alumni registered: 48

  • Alumni marching halftime: 45

  • Decades represented:

    • 70s: 2

    • 80s: 5

    • 90s: 7

    • 00s: 5

    • 10s: 8

    • 20s: 21

  • Sections: (marching/attending)

    • Piccolos: 3/3

    • Clarinets: 5/5

    • Saxes: 2/2

    • Trumpets: 16/17

    • Horns: 0/0

    • Trombones: 6/7

    • Tones: 3/3

    • Tubas: 1/1

    • Percussion: 1/1

    • Flags: 8/9

Registration for MV Alumni Day 2023 is OPEN and the MVs have new uniforms - just in time for the 50th Season and Anniversary!

Hello, MV Alumni! Hopefully this is the beginning of a series of news posts to fill you in on current happenings for the MVAA. Let me know if you have news you would like me to share in a future update!

Linda Correll - MVAA President - Linda.Correll@fcps1.org

Registration for MV Alumni Day 2023 is NOW OPEN!

Go to https://spiritoftech.com/alumniday2023 to read all the info and register to attend. Don’t forget to tell your friends!

  • A few notes:

    • Need game tickets? There are lots of ways to get them, but athletics is holding some for us at https://fevo.me/mvalumni2023

    • This year’s uniform for halftime is the maroon MVAA polo (any version) and BLUE JEANS! Some college band alumni bands worry about belt and shoe colors for their reunions - we’re asking that you don’t wear shredded jorts! :) The goal is pant length jeans with no holes in knees/thighs/backsides. I am honestly NOT a fan of khakis, and I’m SO EXCITED to switch back to jeans!

    • Right now, registration is scheduled to close SEPTEMBER 25th to help us have everything ready for your arrival. If you’re going to need a polo to march halftime this year, please help us out and try to register earlier in the window.

    • Our food option this year is Chick-fil-A, but you are NOT obligated to buy meals through us.

    • No promises, but we *might* have the option to march in the Homecoming Parade on Friday night (Polly is checking for us!) Please make sure to indicate if that’s something you’d like to do when you fill out your registration.

I’m going to try to do a live stream again this year, so if you can’t attend in person, watch for the stream here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhCSStbpzbA

From Bob White’s MV Photo Collection on Flickr

Speaking of merch…

99% of you should have received your missing polo, hoodie, and jacket orders from last year’s event. There are a few orders that are still waiting to be fulfilled, but you WILL get them!

We’ll be using a different vendor this year for the polo and will consider some options for a year-round online shop with made-to-order MVAA items for the future.

THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING YOU’VE DONE FOR THIS, POLLY!

From Bob White’s MV Photo Collection on Flickr

MV Memorabilia

I was able to drive down to Blacksburg last month to visit with the current band at the end of band camp and show off a few pieces of “vintage” (ugh!) memorabilia to complement Dave McKee’s MV history lesson. Current MVs ooh-ed and ahh-ed over a uniform from the 80s with the vertical sash and T-over-V logo, a 90s uniform with VA TECH down the back, a variety of warm up jackets and rain coats, an older (and larger) 4-year mug, one of the first trombone slide covers from the early 2000s with “Go Hoies” appliqued on one side, and two original MV vinyl records. I’m hoping we can pull together even more memorabilia to display at our 50th Anniversary celebration! Do you have items you’d be willing to bring or ship to Blacksburg for the event?

HELP NEEDED: DOES ANYONE HAVE AN ORIGINAL MV UNIFORM?? Besides wanting to add one to my personal collection someday, I’d like to see one in person and have one on display at the Anniversary celebration!

Shared by Terry Baber in the MV Clubhouse on Facebook

Next year we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the MVs!

This year (2023-2024) is the 50th Season and the MVs will be celebrating, but the big “MV Birthday Bash” reunion event - typically celebrated on years that end in 4s and 9s - will be held in Blacksburg next season (2024-2025).

We have started the earliest stages of planning, so stay tuned!

From Bob White’s MV Photo Collection on Flickr

Spring 2023 MVAA Board of Directors Meeting

When the board met this past March, we were joined by a few new faces: Lu Liu (new dean for the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design), Dr. Rosemary Blieszner (interim dean for the College of Architecture, Art, and Design at the time), Dr. Jeffrey Loeffert (Director for the School of Performing Arts), Julia Allen (Assistant Dean of Advancement for AAD), Tanya Ridpath (Director of Alumni Relations for AAD), and Emily Copeland (Assistant Director of Leadership Gifts for AAD). We talked a bit about our interest in helping the Marching Virginians grow, how we can help students network professionally, and how we can best ask for help from the School, College and University. This is a really dynamic team and they realize the MVs are an important part of the college and they’re excited to work with us!

Did you see the MVs have NEW UNIFORMS?

They posted their big reveal on social media:

The MVs can change from the big VT to the sash with just a few buttons. Can you see the similarities between these designs and previous versions of the MV uniform?

From the MV Facebook Page

Are you interacting with the MVs and MVAA online? Make sure to check out these links and share them with your alumni friends!

MV Social Media Links:

Facebook Twitter (X) Instagram

MVAA Facebook MV Alumni Clubhouse on Facebook

Sign up for the MVAA Email List

That’s all I have for now - I can’t wait to see you in October!

Cheers,

Linda