GREENDALE, Wis.— The award winning Greendale High School marching band is preparing to perform in the upcoming Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Dozens of band students are just a week away from a performance of a lifetime.
“To be able to perform in it, it’s a high school band member’s dream,” Greendale High School director of bands, Tom Reifenberg, said. “For us, for our second time, it’s a big accomplishment and it’s something we don’t take for granted.”
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is an iconic parade that Reifenberg led his students to once before in 2016. This year will be the school’s second appearance.
“It’s just giving students the opportunity through music, to have really great life experiences that they wouldn’t necessarily get elsewhere,” Reifenberg said.
Color guard member and senior, Samantha Sarenac, said finishing her high school career with a performance like this is truly a gift.
“I really can’t imagine what this is going to be like afterwards, and how I am going to be changed,” she said. “It is going to seal my year and make it into something really amazing and memorable.”
High school junior, Brady McCrabens, said he grew up watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and it has always been a core memory for him. Now, he can’t believe he is going to be performing in the 97th one.
“It was on my bucket list.” McCrabens said. “It is a dream come true; it really is.”
It is a dream that will soon be a reality for Greendale high schoolers. They will take off on a 15 hour bus trip on Sunday this week and head to the Big Apple.
The band will play “Hooked on a Feeling” while they march throughout the parade. They will also play music from the “Lion King” for their star performance that will be televised.
