Drobny named Fairfield Friend of Education

FAIRFIELD – Fairfield High School Band Director Jim Edgeton has been on a mission to honor Terri Drobny for more than 10 years, and on May 5 he got his wish.

Drobny was named the Friend of Education during the teacher appreciation ceremony held in the Fairfield High School gymnasium that day. Drobny has led the high school’s flag corps for the past 25 years, ever since its inception. The flag corps performs with the marching band during football games and parades and accompanies it on trips to Disney World. Drobny has gone to Disney World seven times.

Edgeton said he’s thrilled to see Drobny recognized for her years of hard work. He mentioned that he nominated both her and her husband, Chuck, for the Friend of Education Award in 2008, hoping that they might both get it. Only one person was chosen, Chuck, and ever since then Edgeton has made it his mission to see Terri honored for her efforts, too.

In his last year as band director, Edgeton mission was accomplished.

Terri said she plans to step down as leader of the flag corps. She will continue to run her dance studio, Le Cygne Dance Academy, which she opened in 1973 as a partnership with Pat Goehring. In fact, it was because of her knowledge of dance that Edgeton asked her to start the flag corps program at Fairfield.

Beginnings

Terri and Chuck graduated from Fairfield High School in 1973, a year before fellow bandmate Jim Edgeton. When Edgeton returned to teach band in the district 29 years ago, the Drobnys’ son Scott was a freshman in high school, and a member of the band.

“We told him it was great to have him back in town, and if there was ever an opportunity to help, to holler at us,” Terri said.

Edgeton took them up on the offer. The Drobnys served as chaperones on trips and performed other odd jobs for the band. The trip that required the most preparation was the trip to Disney World, done once every four years to give every student a chance to go during their high school careers.

“Each time we went, it seemed harder than before,” Terri said. “Well, yeah, the first time we had 60 kids and then we had 126 kids, so no wonder it seemed harder.”

Flag corps

Edgeton, who had a flag corps (also known as a color guard) with his band in Texas, asked the school district for permission to start one at Fairfield. He asked Terri to be its leader.

“I was never in it and didn’t know anything about it,” Terri said.

Edgeton thought that Terri’s skills as a dance instructor would help her craft a flag routine. The school district gave Edgeton the go-ahead on creating a flag corps in the fall of 1995 after marching band practice had already begun. There was little time to recruit girls for the flag corps, but Terri had an idea.

“I told my dance class, ‘Guess what? You’re the new flag corps,’” Terri said.

One girl in dance had twirled baton before, so she was in. Another had been in a color guard in another town, so she taught the rest of the girls what she knew. Terri learned some basic principles from Edgeton and from watching videos.

“And some of it we made up on our own,” she said.

Seven girls went out for flag team that first year. The group usually numbers in the teens, with the largest being 18. Edgeton writes the show and the movements for the band and flag corps, while Terri crafts the choreography for the flags to fit the mood of the music.

Favorite memories

Terri said some of her favorite memories as flag team director were winning awards at local competitions. One year, the group won Outstanding Overall Color Guard at the contest in Davis County.

“I never thought that would happen, because schools from all over Southeast Iowa went to that, and Pella always won everything,” Terri said. “To think that we could do that well with probably less than half the practice time as everybody else.”

Terri said practices for color guard fit into a tight time schedule because Edgeton wants to ensure participants can do other activities, too. She got to work with the team Tuesday and Thursday evenings during marching band season, and sometimes they’d get together on their own apart from the band.

During the band’s trips to Disney World, the band members go to a recording studio while the color guard has its own “master class” with Disney employees who teach them a couple of routines in a matter of hours.

“It’s a good learning experience for the kids and for me,” Terri said.

The band and color guard join up later to march in a parade at the resort.

Retirement

For the past several years, Edgeton has told Terri and Chuck they could retire if they wanted to. But every year, they assured him that, as long as he was at the helm, they would continue to volunteer. Terri said the time commitment was manageable, which amounted to three months in the fall plus a few rehearsals in the spring to prepare for the Pella Tulip Festival.

Earlier this school year, Edgeton announced this would be his last year as Fairfiel band director. The Drobnys told him they were ready to hang up their spurs, too.

“We feel like, whoever his replacement is, the new band teacher will want to do their own thing, and I wouldn’t want someone there saying, ‘Here’s how we used to do it,’” Terri said. “Plus, in my head I’m still 35 years old, but the rest of me doesn’t always agree.”