Friends and Family,

A crescendo of excitement is building here in Cincinnati, as the Pride of Cincinnati Winter Guard prepares for yet another season of competition. 2010 marks the 24th competitive season for Pride, and with 12 WGI medals already to our credit, making this the best season of all is in the forefront of everyone's mind. Auditions were he the weekend of September 25, 26 and 27 and we have already chosen 30 performers from across the U.S. who are now part of the Pride Family.

Along with the thrill of a new season comes the financial stress of making everything happen. This is where you can help. Although the decision to not compete in 2009 was difficult to make, we as a Board are confident that it was the right thing to do for the longevity of the organization. We took the ‘09 season “off ” to explore new fund-raising possibilities and make improvements where possible to our long running bingo operation. Our efforts have been rewarded with a somewhat stabilized bingo income. Unfortunately, we have been forced to the realization that in the present economy, bingo can no longer provide us with the income we need to maintain the standard of excellence that the Pride of Cincinnati Winter Guard has come to represent.

In spite of the fact that we have been saving diligently and have been especially careful in budgeting our expenses for the upcoming season, we find that we still need to locate new revenue sources. Fees to perform in Pride have been traditionally the lowest in the activity, they have been raised to a level closer to other guards with whom we compete. In addition though we would like to ask you for your possible support. We are enclosing a form for you to consider supporting our “Please Buy Us Some Gym Time” fund-raiser. Through these efforts you can help us by actually paying for valuable hours at our rehearsal facilities.

As always we hope that you can support us in other ways as well. Please check our website periodically for updates on the 2010 season at www.prideofcincinnati.org. There you can also check out our performance sched- ule and hopefully come out to support Pride in person.

DONATION LEVELS.pdf

Thank you in advance for however you can offer your support!

Charles Gumbert Executive Director Pride Youth Development Foundation