Local Performers Head to Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade: From Marathon to Parkland

2023-11-21 18:18:30

From Marathon to Parkland, local performers are gearing up to march in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Thursday.

Students and faculty woke up early Tuesday, with many arriving at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport by 4 a.m.

Josiah Jimenez is a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High senior who will be playing the tenor drums at this year’s parade.

“I’m pretty excited,” he said, as he waited for his flight with his friends. “I hope we don’t get distracted.”

Jimenez is one of regarding 160 MSD students making their way to the Big Apple.

Band Director Steve Rivero says his students are prepared, and that he’s proud of them.

“What a blessing for these students, for our community,” he said.

He and his son Robbie will lead two more rehearsals before the performance – including one at 4 a.m. Thursday – just hours before the parade kicks off.

The elder Rivero also has three other sons – Aiden, Adam, and Austin who are members of the student marching band bound for national television.

“It feels unreal,” said Adam Rivero.

And the Eagles are in good company from South Florida.

Dancers from Kendall’s Maria Verdeja School of the Arts will make their way to the Upper West Side on Thanksgiving morning.

A Keys band director will also play the bass trombone with 400 colleagues from around the country.

“Music will take you places,” said Band Director, Chuck Brooker, from Marathon Middle High School. “I’m just so happy to represent the Marathon community, and the Florida Keys.”

His hope is that his students back home will learn the importance of music when they see him on TV come Thanksgiving morning.

There’s still a mystery to exactly what song the MSD Eagles will perform. Rivero said it’s a holiday theme, and he gave this hint: “all aboard!”

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