Lauren Buzdygon with members of the Bon Bons Alumni Chorus

At the Jersey Surf’s 2014 Memorial Day rehearsal weekend, alumni representatives of the highly respected and internationally famous Audubon Bon Bons honored Surf tuba section leader, Lauren Buzdygon, with a special scholarship award.

Established in Audubon, NJ, the Audubon Bon Bons were an all-female junior drum and bugle corps founded in 1938. The Bon Bons were consistently recognized as of the best all female corps in the nation. Since there were a limited amount of all female corps during their time in the drum corps activity, the Bon Bons were forced to compete with their all male counterparts. The Bon Bons placed 2^nd to the storied Holy Name Cadets at the American Legion Nationals in 1957, winning high drums and general effect during the competition. In 1960, the Bon Bons took high brass honors at the American Legion Nationals in Miami.

Ms. Carol Terreri of the Bon Bons alumni talked with us about the award.

“The ‘scholarship’ we presented to Lauren was in the name of the Joseph and Florence Bernert, who founded the Audubon Bon Bons in 1938 as the first all girl drum and bugle corps. Bill Bernert, who was the son of the founders, was our horn and visual instructor and it was his mission to “Keep the Memory Alive” after the corps ceased operation as a competitive unit. Bill passed away in 2012. Honoring the memory of the Bernert family and the Bon Bons organization are the biggest reasons we do this. We are so happy that Jersey Surf Director Bob Jacobs and the staff of Jersey Surf helped us to choose Lauren as the recipient of this award. She is truly deserving of the financial assistance made possible through this scholarship. Our members who were present today were so impressed with Lauren and the entire corps that we want to make this a yearly presentation rather than every-other-year, which was our original plan.”

Scholarship winner, Lauren was asked about how she felt about her achievement. She responded,

“I’m honored to receive this scholarship and I’d love to help make it become a tradition. It’s no secret that girls are still generally a minority in brass and percussion sections in the drum corps world. No matter what excuses people can come up with to try and validate why that is, I know it’s still something that needs to change. More girls should march drum corps!”

The Jersey Surf is very proud of Lauren and is delighted to have her as a member of the corps.