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John and Gloria Flores began their involvement with the Santa Clara Vanguard (SCV) in 1979 when their son Joey joined the corps. They joined the Booster Club and began helping wherever needed. Both worked at Bingo and their volunteer time grew from there.
Gloria was a marketing manager at AT&T and utilized those skills to the benefit of SCV. She excelled at writing and enjoyed talking with people, so she took on Public Relations for the organization. This was followed by assuming the role of Event Coordinator. In that role, Gloria lent her organizational skills and creativity to many projects including the 25th Anniversary Celebration, Gail Royer’s Retirement Dinner, and many End-of-Season Banquets and Birthday Dinners. In tandem with the anniversary celebration, Gloria chaired the 25th Anniversary Yearbook committee.
John had an interest in photography and an excellent eye which led to the capture of amazing shots of the corps. As such, he was asked to become the official corps photographer. His picture-taking transitioned into becoming the Historian for the corps. In that role, John found many priceless photographs of the Vanguard early years, had them framed, and hung them in the Corps Hall as “a look through the years!”
In 1992, John was asked to co-chair Pacific Procession (PP), SCV’s home drum corps show. A year later, John assumed the role as Chair and continued to grow the show until his retirement in 2004. Together, in her role as Event Coordinator, John and Gloria built PP into the “premier west coast drum corps show” with world class corps traveling from all over the US to participate.
In addition to chairing PP, John and Gloria regularly mentored other show producers and shared their knowledge and experience at the DCI Annual Tour Event Partner Seminars. The PP show became so successful that a portion of funds raised were contributed to the SCV scholarship fund which allowed many young performers the opportunity to be part of this amazing organization.
As VMAPA Hall of Famer Curt Moore shared, “John and Gloria Flores are two really extraordinary people in the history and evolution of the Vanguard organization, and are very important in the years of hard work they put in and how they dedicated themselves to the organization. As parents and supporters, they were very influential during the many years they were involved with the Vanguard, working in the background to make it run so well. Their dedication to the corps, the kids, and the Vanguard ideal was nothing short of phenomenal.”
