Next week, Calumet Laurium Keweenaw JROTC’s program says a bittersweet goodbye to one of its leaders for the past 28 years. Major Mike Farley began working with CLK students in the JROTC program in 1998 when he and his wife moved to the Keweenaw Peninsula. In that first year, he thought of an interesting way to combine a locally loved sport and traditional opening ceremonies at high school games. In 1999, CLK JROTC students started the first ice-skating color guard.
“And so we of course did not present the flags. And then I just asked the question, why don’t we do this? I mean, we do it for football, we do it for basketball. Why don’t we do this for hockey? Because hockey, I thought, was the biggest game in town,” Farley said. “And I didn’t get a satisfactory answer. And so the next school year, when the school year kicked off, I convinced a young lady named Amanda Bailey to join JROTC and help us form a skating color guard. She was a figure skater and a cheerleader, so Amanda joined ROTC and she was the first commander and that’s when it started in the season of 1999.”
Farley says it’s bittersweet to retire from leading the program. However, he adds that the color guard will remain in good hands under the leadership of Lt. Colonel Jonathan C. Leiter. Farley’s ice-skating color guard, under his leadership, has participated in some interesting ceremonies, once helping start the game at the Calumet Colosseum during Hockeyville and even traveling to Grand Rapids to perform color guard duties at a Grand Rapids Griffins hockey game.
Farley’s final program leading the CLK JROTC Ice skating Color Guard will take place prior to the Calumet Copper Kings varsity hockey games on January 20th against Negaunee High School. The game begins at 6 pm.
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