Alpine Girls

The Alpine Girls drum and bugle corps, formed in the fall of 1959, was a junior all-girl corps originally based in Irondequoit. They were sponsored by the Irondequoit American Legion Post 134.

World Hall of Fame president Vince Bruni was instrumental in the formation of the Alpine Girls, serving as corps director. Along with a handful of interested parents who raised the necessary funds to purchase instruments and uniforms helped them get started. Uniform design was chosen from sketches submitted by members of the parent group. The name "Alpines" comes from the Swiss style of uniform.

Their initial instructional staff included Father Udall as the musical arranger, Ronald Jacobs and John Damschroder on brass, and Collin Campbell on percussion. In the beginning, 30 girls were enlisted and their first season saw them become the most crowd appealing parade corps in Monroe County. By the end of the season, they were invited to appear as exhibition corps in two Class "A" competitions, an honor unheard of for a first-year corps.

Their second season saw them enter the field of competition in six contests and they were invited to appear in the Canadian National Exposition in Toronto. At this time, they were presented a Canadian flag by a Canadian Legion Post and are one of the few American groups who had been extended this honor. They placed second in the 7th district American Legion State championship contest in the “Junior” classification. They also competed at the NY Canadian championships.

From 1962 to 1966, the corps continued competing in the region and Ontario as members of the NY Canadian circuit. The girls became known as the Sweethearts of the drum corps world and were one of the most colorful and crowd-pleasing corps in the country. The group was one of the four units which comprised the United Drum Corps of Rochester.

In 1967, Alpine reverted to a parade and exhibition corps before going inactive for the following two seasons. In 1970, the corps returned to the field of competition as members of the Penn York circuit and finished 16^th in the preliminary championships. The following year, they missed out by one spot of making the Penn York “Class B” finals, finishing in 7th place.

From 1972 to 1975, the Alpine Girls competed at the US Open “All Girls” class, placing in 7^th, 10th, 5^th and 4^th respectively. In 1975 they also finished in 4^th place at the American International Open championships. In each of the 4^th finishes, they missed the making the finals by one position. The corps once again went inactive over the next two seasons before reactivating and participating in parades and exhibitions in 1978.

This was to be short lived as the corps disbanded in 1979.