Three female university students each receive $500 scholarship

Posted on December 13th, 2021

The World Drum Corps Hall of Fame (WDCHoF) presented $500 scholarship awards to each of three recipients during the annual induction ceremony and banquet held recently in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

The three female winners, all currently studying in university, are Rebecca “Beca” Findley, Annika Hlywa and Julia Troy.  Two of the scholarship awards were funded by donations from two alumni corps.  Any associate or regular Hall of Fame member in good standing can recommend an applicant, who must be a current high school, college or university student or current active member of a drum and bugle corps.

Beca Findley is a senior at the University of Maine in the college of Education and Human Development, majoring in Kinesiology with a concentration in Exercise Science. She plans to graduate school next year then continue studies for a masters and/or doctorate in Occupational Therapy.  She is a member of the school softball team, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and American Sign Language Club.  In summer, she plays for the Stratford Brakettes softball team and helps coach local youth teams near her hometown of Seymour, Connecticut over summers and during school breaks.

Annika Hlywa, of Bluffton, South Carolina, is studying psychology, with concentration in forensics, at the University of New Haven.  She has an extensive music background, performing with the Crossmen drum and bugle corps and the University of New Haven Marching Band. 

Her scholarship was presented in memory of Donald Friesing, inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001.  He first played drums with the Joseph B. Garrity Post American Legion in 1938.  By 1943 he was teaching others to drum, and over the following 50 years produced many of the most accomplished percussion players in the drum corps community.  He drummed for eight years with the Raymond A. Gabarina Post (Skyliners).  He was a participant in the founding meeting for the organization of Drum Corps Associates (DCA)

Julia Troy, of Levittown, New York, is currently a freshman at Binghamton University who will be attending Hofstra University in the spring.  Her current major is Biology on the Pre-Med track. After receiving her Bachelor’s degree in Biology she plans to continue on to Physician Assistant (PA) School, a two/three year program leading to a Master’s degree in PA Studies.  She is currently a member of the Wishmaker’s Club, Paws and Effects Club and American Red Cross Club. At home, she works at a bakery and babysits children for multiple families. 

Her scholarship was presented in memory of Richard “Butch” Anderson, inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1992 and best remembered as the flamboyant drum major of the New York Skyliners throughout the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s.  He joined Skyliners in 1970, as a soprano player. He was also a solo soprano player, horn instructor and show co-ordinator with Skyliners.  He also marched as drum major with both the Marksmen and Syracuse Brigadiers.

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