Robert Mevec is an ambitious man.
Mevec has set out to do something no one has done before: to collect photos, sound recordings, memorabilia and all sorts of other items and to create an archival DVD commemorating the Liverpool High School marching band’s first 40 years.
It all started out with scrapbooking, Mevec, a 1979 LHS graduate, said. I have a lot of pictures and memories. I’ve been going to a lot of reunions. I started thinking that people would really enjoy looking at this.
Mevec comes from a long line of marching band alums. He was a member from 1978 to 1979. His sister took part in color guard from 1977 to 1980, and his brother was in the drum line from 1980 to 1984.
It’s just something about marching band, Mevec said. If you were in it, you got the bug and you always have it with you.
Mevec has a friend who was part of West Genesee’s marching band who took on a similar project. The West Genny grad put together a four-DVD set memorializing the band’s early decades. Mevec decided he wanted to follow suit, focusing on the band’s first 40 years.
I couldn’t find anything earlier than 1950, so that’s my starting point, he said. I think the tradition of the beginning is more important than what’s going on today. There’s no history in today. I don’t want to lose anything from the original time. That’s why I’m focusing on the first 40 years.
Mevec is having a bit of trouble with the endeavor — and that’s why he needs the community’s help.
I talked to [Elizabeth] Dailey [executive director of the Liverpool Public Library] and she said that everything they’d had was destroyed, he lamented. They got rid of all of their old records.
Mevec has connected with some old classmates who have agreed to look through everything they have to assist with the project. Mevec is seeking photos, video, sound recordings, reel-to-reel, eight- or sixteen-millimeter film, old uniforms and memorabilia, absolutely anything that community members might have from between the years of 1949 and 1980. He will also compile a history of the winter guard and color guard, so he’s looking for anything relating to those organizations, as well, particularly from the late 1970s and early 1980s. He plans to put all sound recordings on CD and compile an archival DVD with the rest of the materials.
The alumni have been very positive, Mevec said. They’re trying to find stuff for me. Now I’m searching for all of Liverpool to help out.
Mevec said that he does have some material already — mostly photographs and old clippings from The Review. He has some video from the past several years, though he has none from 1980 and 1981. He thinks some was taken.
Mevec is making it easy for community members to reach him. Materials can be left at a drop box in the Liverpool Public Library after Friday Jan. 5. They can also be mailed to Mevec at 27 Otis Acre Drive, Pulaski, NY 13142. People can also contact him by phone at 298-4126 or by e-mail at [email protected]. He will return anything he receives.
There were a lot of accomplishments in those years, Mevec said. They set the precedent for today’s marching band The thing is to get everything. Then it’s nothing to put it together. It’s important th
