Page 46 - FOP June 2019 Magazine

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the city should have a pipes and drums band to play for police officer memorials. At that time, the Emerald Society Pipes and Drums of New York City came in to play funerals, and eventually that led to the formation of Pipes and Drums of the Emerald Society Chicago Police Department.
Some of the members of that band wanted to split off and form a pipes and drums made up solely of Chicago Police Of- ficers. In 1999, the Pipes and Drums of the Chicago Police De- partment formed, with the only requisite being members had to be a retired or active Chicago Police Officer. No experience was necessary.
Some came to the band like McKenna, who began drumming in the band at St. Rita High School 60 years ago. Some came like Schield, who saw the band perform during its first year and was invited to lunch, where members put a pair of drumsticks in his hand and showed him how to bang the drum slowly and surely.
Some are just music lovers, like 5th District Officer Amy Pe- trouski, who played piano as a kid. When she was 10 years old, Petrouski saw pipers in a South Side Irish parade and decided to begin playing bagpipes. She joined a pipes and drums corps whose members knew some of the players in the Pipes and Drums of the CPD and suggested she join.
“Of all the bands I have been with growing up, this has the best of everything,” explains Petrouski, who has been on for 14 years. “It’s the camaraderie, the competition spirit and the mu- sicality.”
The Pipes and Drums of the CPD is completely self-funded. For one of the band’s first performances, members decided to go play at a funeral for a fallen officer in Milwaukee. When the Milwaukee County Sheriffs learned that CPD had come on its own dime, they took up a collection to offset the expenses. One of the sheriffs gave the collection to founding member and SWAT Officer John “Bones” Ryan. Ryan took it and donated it right back to the family of the fallen officer.
They have been doing it this way for almost 20 years. There are those who know the band members’ passion and impact and want to support it. Chicago Lodge 7 is one of those sup- porters and made a generous donation to help the band get to Washington, D.C. for National Police Week 2019.
Obviously, it was the most important year for the Pipes and Drums of the CPD to be at Police Week since perhaps 2010, when five Department members were lost. This command per-
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formance served to provide comfort to families of the fallen and all Department members. Petrouski also noted how it’s been a great outlet to come off the job and decompress with each other through the music.
And perhaps the skies opened up and the sun shined through at this Capitol performance because it was truly personal for each member of the band.
“We’re putting four people on the (National Law Enforce- ment Officers Memorial) wall, and every one of those individu- als have contacts and direct friendships with somebody in this band,” commented Bryan Reynolds, a founding member who is with the Airport Law Enforcement Unit at Midway.
Reynolds, who joined the band by answering an ad in the dai- ly bulletin, worked with and for Commander Bauer. It’s those relationships that Pipe Major Kevin Tuttle, an officer in 019, says made the performance this year so emotional.
Tuttle was at a loss for words to convey how he felt about the connection the Pipes and Drums of the CPD made with its au- dience. Then, he found some to describe what the band put into it.
“We busted our asses year-round to come out and sound that good,” he added. “Honoring their families, honoring their friends and honoring the brotherhood and sisterhood of law enforcement from across the country is always a special feeling. It fills you with such honor and pride to be here.”
This year’s competition set opened with “La Boum,” and in- cluded “The Bells of Dunblane” and “Where the Pipers Play.” Retired Officer Tom Cunningham, who has been with the band for 20 years and has seen all of its performances in this compe- tition, called this year’s effort “one of our best ever. I didn’t hear any glitches.”
Tuttle added that “the pipes were singing today.” All pipers had a blue line flag protruding out of one of their pipes, and during the set they seemed to wave in slow motion, as if to offer a salute to the officers upstairs. When the final note of the final song crescendoed, the Pipes and Drums of the Chicago Police Department knew it had accomplished its mission.
“We nailed it,” Petrouski asserted. “We had a couple of the people in the band welling up when we were done.”
The response from the fallen officers peeking through the clouds might have been even more emotional.
“I think they definitely heard us,” Reynolds declared. “And I hope they’re up there dancing a little bit.”