At 2 a.m., 44-year-old Bridgette Jorgensen’s day started in Lyndon, Illinois. By 8 a.m., she was unloading color guard flags, wooden rifles, and a full-sized prop bed in a parking lot at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan.

“This is my happy place,” Jorgensen said. “Even though I have, like, a billion children at home.”

She wasn’t alone. A 62-year-old senior associate dean, a 12-year-old marimba player, and dozens of others trekked from across the state of Michigan and beyond to perform with Michigan’s only drum corps: the Northern Lights Drum and Bugle Corps, an affiliate member of Drum Corps International’s (DCI) All-Age Class. Kayden Hemmer, 12, of Byron Center, is the youngest member of the corps. He was recruited while standing in line for the concession stand of a

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