2020 Year In Review

It is a story that is really not much different than yours. 2020 kicked off with incredible promise and excitement in November of 2019. We saw record turn out for auditions and our organization was set up for the most successful season in our brief 11 year history. By February we had our team in place, had developed strong alliances with some incredible new sponsors, added more quality educators to our staff and were set to embark on our most robust season of education to date. And, just like your story, COVID-19 brought all of this excitement to a halt.

Although our summer tour was cancelled we all knew that it would not stop Genesis from marching on! Over our 11 years we have faced many obstacles and challenges…we were prepared to face this pandemic.It would have been easy to close our doors and look to 2021, but our performers and staff told us a different story. We shifted focus and met almost daily in March to develop our plan. A collaborative idea started to come to life…and Project Genesis was born.

Project Genesis was developed as a collaborative “think tank” and combined ideas and input from our entire organization. We made investments in new technologies and options to serve our team during the shutdown. Among several projects we launched individual lessons for our members, commissioned new music from our creative staff for a Christmas album project and passed out 7 new pieces to our members, kept our staff in place and working, brought in clinicians for online masterclasses and brought our alumni together for a history documentary event. We also saw the need from our students for instruments at home to practice with.

Genesis made investments in new instruments and at home options to provide to our students who were in need. We provided all of the keyboard students and staff in need with Pearl MALLETStations to practice at home. We provided brass and percussion instruments to members not able to access these from their schools and made the investment in this without rental fees or impact to our students. We committed to our students only and did not open our options to the public and we did so in order to make sure that our 2020 team was given an experience unique to only them.

Now We Need Your Help

For the first time during this pandemic we are in real need of your help. The pandemic has gone on longer than any of us could predict. It has caused not only the cancellation of the 2020 season, but also several projects we had planned for October and November to create financial relief to our organization. Genesis is trying to raise $50,000 from now through the new year. This money will be used to start our 2021 educational season and allow us to continue offering options and instruments to our current and new students until it is safe for all of us to come together again. We hope you will celebrate the holidays with us by enjoying Bells – a collaborative project by the 2020 Genesis Drum and Bugle Corps. If you like what you hear and what we are trying to do we hope you will consider a donation to our fundraiser. Please take a few minutes and visit our donations page at genesisdbc.org/donation. You can donate at any level and in any amount you wish, including a monthly reoccurring option.

From The Entire Fenix Family

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!