SPONSOR IN THE SPOTLIGHT

During his membership with Beatrix’ he was already orientating abroad and he was the first Dutchman to march with an American drumcorps. In 1979 and 1980 Ton marched with Beatrix’ and 1980 he also marched The Boston Crusaders. He enjoyed this so much that he decided to march again in 1981 and 1982, this time with Madison Drum & Bugle Corps from Madison, Wisconsin. When he came back in 1982 he returned to Beatrix’ and started teaching which he did until 1988. (Dutch spoken video): 

His experience with “the American way of life” made that he decided to move to Madison, WI in 1988. He started a company in financial advice and management and in 1997 he decided to introduce his family’s chocolate brand in the States.

Ton Stam now is the owner of Chocolaterie Stam, a quickly expanding chain of chocolate stores in the U.S. and the Netherlands. Ton comes from a family of European Chocolate makers and decided to bring the family name to the U.S. Having marched with the Scouts in 1981 and 1982, Ton made Des Moines his home and base of operations for his business.

As early as 1817, the Stam Family ran a bakery that over time developed a reputation for pastries and chocolates. In 1913, Jacobus Stam, under pressure from his clients, decided to specialize in chocolates exclusively. Hence, Chocolaterie Stam was founded. Three of his four sons, Frits, Wim and Jaap, and one daughter, Fredi, decided to join their father in the chocolate business in the late 1930's and 1940's, each developing their own branch of the Chocolaterie Stam family tree. Frits' business turned very successful and was joined in 1978 by his second eldest son, Ad.

The youngest of Frits's seven sons, Ton, felt that Americans would appreciate his father's chocolate as much as Dutch people do. Now Americans can experience a nearly 100 year old Dutch tradition of fresh cream and nut filled chocolate bonbons from Chocolaterie Stam.

Ton has a strong opinion concerning alumni and honorary members. In his opinion they should not be passive people but active to further develop their own organization. These are not only words with Ton and Beatrix’ is very blessed with his proactive attitude towards Beatrix’. A project on which Ton was a great help for Beatrix’ was the 2008 USA Tour. Ton supplied the corps with a fully equipped foodtruck as well as a beautiful equipment trailer. With his help the start of this tour was the best ever.

The most recent project with Ton has been our partnership with Stanbury Uniforms. The fact that Beatrix’ has a representative in the States makes the communication, negotiation and logistics of our new uniforms so much easier.

We would like to thank Ton for his time and efforts to secure a sound foundation for Beatrix’ and are looking forward to developing new projects in the near future. More about this will be announced at the beginning of July on our website.