1939 Shriner drum gets facelift and new stage at CSU-Pueblo
Release Date: October 22, 2014
Press Release
PUEBLO – The Shriners are known for their generous philanthropic nature, especially as it relates to children, but the 2010 gift of an old drum to Colorado State University-Pueblo now has the campus moving to a different beat.
“We were hooked instantly,” Hunt said. “We wanted to find a way to make it salvageable both as an instrument and a vehicle.”
The refurbished drum has a prominent place front and center at home football games and will have a special place of honor at the 31st annual Al Kaly Basketball tournament, scheduled this year for Nov. 14-15.
The Al Kaly Shrine gave the drum to the University in 2010 in poor shape, on a broken three-wheeler golf cart that was unsafe to drive. The Shriners have a longstanding relationship with CSU-Pueblo Athletics, having sponsored football games from 1951-1983. The Shriners then established the Al Kaly Basketball Tournament in Massari Arena in 1983, which continues to this day.
Enter CSU-Pueblo Materials Supervisor Anthony Bonfiglio, who approached Owen Hunt of Stickies Stickers and then carried the project through to completion. Bonfiglio had a relationship with Hunt, who installed decals on University fleet vehicles. When asked to create a new stencil to cover up the old Shriners artwork, however, Hunt and his friend Matt Langloss, who both have backgrounds in fabrication, paint, and body, fell in love with the project. The two have donated significant time and resources to refurbishing the drum and the cart on which it is transported.
“We were hooked instantly,” Hunt said. “We wanted to find a way to make it salvageable both as an instrument and a vehicle.”
Hunt and Langloss first did a search and found a drum head large enough with the original Remo Company that made the drum in California. He traced the drum back to 1939 through an original packing certificate for the railway he found with the drum and believes it has spent most of its life here in Colorado. He said Puebloans may remember seeing it in parades with Shriner clowns as drivers.
“Once the drum was done, it was too pretty to be transported on the worn out cart, which needed a major overhaul,” he said.
After finding the new drum heads, Hunt and Langloss stripped it down to the bare metal and totally rebuilt the cart into a four-wheel drive cart, installing new LED head and tail lights as well as lights in the drum for night events. A new gong mallet allows the cheer squad to bang the drum after every score.
The refurbished drum has a prominent place front and center at home football games and will have a special place of honor at the 31st annual Al Kaly Basketball tournament, scheduled this year for Nov. 14-15.
“It’s a passion of ours, doing things that are off the wall,” he said. “You don’t get the opportunity to say ‘yes’ to refurbishing something like this every day!”
Colorado State University - Pueblo is a regional, comprehensive university emphasizing professional, career-oriented, and applied programs. Displaying excellence in teaching, celebrating diversity, and engaging in service and outreach, CSU-Pueblo is distinguished by access, opportunity, and the overall quality of services provided to its students.
