At one time, more than 400 boys were said to comprise Springfield’s famed Boy Scout Band, a group proclaimed as the largest of its kind in the world. And it’s all thanks to R. Ritchie Robertson, Springfield’s beloved music man. Although his Boy Scout Band is long gone, the beat of his legacy keeps going on through the Scotch Lassies, or as they’re known today, the Kilties.
“We are the oldest female uniform drum and bugle corps in the United States. We wear the traditional Scottish dress of the kilt, the tartan, all the things,” said Sunday Wildschuetz, the group’s sponsor. “We have been performing for 100 years. it’s just really a legacy that we have here at Central.”
Wildschuetz was a Kiltie herself years ago, as was Lori Scott, a retired music educator from Springfield. Scott was so impacted by the program that she focused her master’s thesis on Robertson.
“The whole reason he started the Scotch Lassies was so the women could have an opportunity like the boys were getting in the Boy Scout band,” Scott said. “And I think that says a lot for the foresight that R. Richie Robertson had to offer something for the women as well as the boys.”…