Four Eau Claire Memorial High School students will participate in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) - Four students from Memorial High School will be spending their Thanksgiving in New York City for Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

This November, Memorial High School students Joshua Krause, Nathan Phillips, Ed McGee and Fletcher Myhre are heading to New York City to march in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, as a part of the Great American Marching Band.

Eric Dasher, Memorial High School Band Director, said students from their school have gone for the last few years.

“It’s actually our eighth year in a row that we’ve had students participate in this,” Dasher said. “The Macy’s Great American Marching Band holds auditions all year and they choose the top echelon students around the country.”

The students submitted a video application in January, and a few months later, they heard back.

“I got up and did a little happy dance and then it was, it was just a little surreal,” McGee said. “I never thought I’d actually make it in.”

In about a month, the group will be heading to New York for a week of sightseeing, rehearsing and socializing with their fellow bandmates. Each of the four students said they are excited to go from playing in this school to playing in New York City.

“It’s a great honor, especially considering the sheer amount of woodwind players that a marching band would have,” Phillips said. “To be one of the few that got accepted is really cool.”

“I’ve marched in parades before but nothing like this, where there’s just like millions of people lined on the streets,” Krause said. “So, I’m just excited for a new experience.”

“I never thought it would happen, so, happy to be here,” Fletcher said.

“I’ve been watching this parade since I was a little kid, so I’ve been wanting to do this forever now and it was really cool to fulfill that dream,” Myhre said. “To be able to march down the streets of New York and just look and see millions of people is really life-changing.”

Dasher said he is proud to see his students recognized with this honor.

“We’re all about helping kids do impossible things and this is an impossible thing that we get to help them through and just show them where music can take them,” Dasher said.

185 students across the country and chosen to participate in the Great American Marching Band.

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