DCI honors volunteers who power drum corps behind the scenes
DCI named Jennifer Gold and Rena Morton its 2026 Volunteers of the Year, spotlighting the unpaid work that keeps meals, travel, fundraising, and tour logistics moving.
The first hands on a drum corps show day are usually not on sticks, mallets, or horns. They are the volunteer hands loading equipment, lining up meals, sorting travel details, and solving problems before a battery line ever steps off the sideline.
Drum Corps International named Jennifer Gold of the Boston Crusaders and Rena Morton of Carolina Crown as its 2026 Volunteers of the Year, and the organization said members of the Friends of DCI program selected them. DCI will honor both at the World Championship Semifinals in Indianapolis in August, with the 2026 DCI Tour set to finish there during World Championships week, August 3-8, at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Gold’s story starts in the corps itself. She marched with the Boston Crusaders from 1987 through 1990, then returned as a board member in 2016 and helped attack a funding problem that had been limiting what the organization could do. DCI said her grant work lifted annual grant revenue from about $2,500 to more than $3.6 million since 2017, a change that supported stability, expanded programming, and educational opportunities for hundreds of young performers. Boston Crusaders, founded in 1940, is a World Class corps and a founding member of Drum Corps International, and its 2026 production gives 165 performers an outlet to refine their craft.
That kind of administrative work rarely shows up in a warm-up arc or a drum feature, but it changes what the corps can actually offer on the field. Better funding means more secure rehearsal resources, more support for education, and a steadier runway for the kind of detail work percussion sections live on, from instruments and transport to the daily grind of getting everyone in the right place at the right time.
Morton represents the other side of the same volunteer ecosystem. DCI described her as a 26-year veteran with Carolina Crown who has served on the Crown Advisory Council, the Crown Board, and the CrownCARES Board. Carolina Crown inducted her into its Hall of Fame in 2019, underscoring how long her work has mattered inside the organization.
DCI has recognized volunteers since 1988, and its awards have long covered the full range of behind-the-scenes labor. A 2008 Volunteer of the Year story said volunteers help make every season possible for more than 5,000 young performers each year, while a 2025 profile showed the honor reaching beyond fundraising and administration to transportation, medical, and mental-health support. That is the part fans do not always see: every polished run starts with people who make the tour movable, the show possible, and the whole summer hold together.
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