Financial Strain Puts South Shore Drill Team's Future in Doubt

The South Shore Drill Team marched through the Bud Billiken Parade last weekend the way it has for decades: rifles spinning overhead, color guard sharp, dancers in step. Behind the routine, the organization is running on fumes.

Team leaders say a string of expired grants, the loss of the founder's day-to-day involvement, and rising costs for transportation and equipment have left the nearly 50-year-old South Side team unable to pay its staff on schedule. Instructors and directors are working without paychecks to keep rehearsals, performances and mentorship programs running for the dozens of young people who pass through the team each year.

Arthur Robertson, a Chicago Public Schools teacher who founded the South Shore Drill Team in 1980 and remains its executive director, has been dealing with health problems for close to three years, according to Stella Natufe, the organization's director of media and special events. Robertson had long handled the team's finances, payroll and insurance himself, and when he became too ill to manage those duties, other directors had to take them on with little preparation.

"It's like when your grandmother passes away or suddenly takes ill. Grandma knows everything," Natufe said. "The finances, payroll, insurance, that was not their responsibilities."

As the remaining leadership stepped into that role, they discovered that several non-renewable grants the team relied on were expiring around the same time, Natufe said. With that money gone, the organization has cut costs where it can, mostly in payroll and transportation. Rehearsals have been shortened. When a parade or event isn't too far from South Shore, the team skips chartering a bus. Sometimes fewer kids get to travel to performances because there isn't money to move them.

"Staff is volunteering because payroll is behind," Natufe said. "The staff, who all grew up with the organization, they still come to work. Rehearsals are not as long, but everybody comes in and gets the job done."

Desonni Harege, 24, spent 16 years as a performer with the drill team before becoming an instructor. At the team's final practice before the Bud Billiken Parade, he described going without pay as part of the job, comparing it to musicians who make art before they see any money from it.

"The money, everybody wants to be paid. It's a plus having a job," Harege said. "But this is what we love doing. It's about keeping the kids safe, keeping them off the streets, saving lives and, being performers ourselves, it's a part of us. I'd do it without money any day. Any day."

The drill team has built its reputation over decades of high-profile appearances, including a performance at President Barack Obama's inauguration, and is best known locally for its rifle-twirling and precision routines at parades across the South Side. For many members, it is less an after-school activity than a family.

Jeremiah Thomas, 19, said instructor and former performer Gregory Burrell has been a mentor in his life, and that teammates look out for each other beyond practice, including giving each other rides home when needed.

"The team, we're a big family," Thomas said. "First things first is being able to have a brotherhood, and to know that a lot of people have my back every day."

Younger members are aware of what's at stake. Charity Smith, 13, said she was troubled to learn the team is short on money.

"I don't like hearing it," Smith said. "The fact that we're not getting enough money to become a better performance group is really disappointing to me, because we always put on a killer performance."

The drill team isn't alone in facing a funding squeeze. About a mile away, the youth organization Lost Boyz Inc. came close to shutting down earlier this year after a drop in grant funding, and only kept its programs running after laid off staff volunteered their time, according to officials there. Nonprofit leaders across the South Side have pointed to a shrinking and unpredictable pool of grants and corporate donations as groups compete for the same shrinking pot of money.

For now, the South Shore Drill Team is trying to hold its schedule together through cost cuts rather than canceling performances outright. Directors are looking for new grants and donors to replace the funding that lapsed, and are leaning on the loyalty of staff who came up through the program themselves and are willing to work unpaid rather than see it fold.

The team has not set a public fundraising target or deadline. Staff members continue working without pay, rehearsals remain shortened, and chartered trips remain limited. Team leaders say those arrangements will need to carry the group into its fall performance schedule.