Foothill band returns thankful for parade experience

Although they had to wake up early to walk a chilly 2½ miles in the rain on Thanksgiving, Foothill High School’s marching band had much to be thankful for.

About 300 band members performed in the 88th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Nov. 27 in New York City. The parade drew in about 3 million spectators and 50 million TV viewers, according to band director Travis Pardee.

“It was an honor, and we’re ecstatic that we were selected to perform,” Pardee said. “We’re proud of what we’ve built, and we think that we perform and compete at a national level now. We were surprised, humbled and honored.”

Despite the large crowd, junior Bailie Rudd, 16, said her nerves calmed as she began to perform.

“Once they called us to go, it just became like every other practice we had before,” Rudd said. “It was very exciting, almost indescribable. There was so much crowd excitement, and everyone was pumped up. It was fun.”

In addition to the parade, the band’s top 80 students performed with Marie Osmond on Nov. 25 at Carnegie Hall.

“It was nearly a sold-out show. There were approximately 80 seats left in the hall,” Pardee said. “During the performance, we premiered a new piece of music called ‘Psalm 92,’ which was written for us by Anthony LaBounty, a band director at UNLV.”

The trip came with a price tag of about $650,000, equaling about $2,000 per person plus additional costs. Students helped fundraise while the Falcon Band Boosters, a nonprofit that supports the school’s band programs, sought corporate and private donations.

On top of raising money, the students spent hundreds of hours rehearsing in class and after school.

“Normally, we’re mostly concerned with the halftime show for football games and competing in a circuit called Bands of America,” Pardee said. “So, we still did all that, plus we had to add the parade and the Carnegie Hall preparation.”

Once in New York, the teens mixed pleasure with business as they balanced visiting tourist attractions with dress rehearsals, including a 3 a.m. practice for NBC before the parade.

“Later, we stood on the corner of Central Park West for about 2½ hours as the parade started,” Pardee said. “We were fairly late in the parade, so we didn’t actually step off until 10:30 a.m.”

Foothill was one of six high school marching bands that performed in the parade. The selection process began about two years ago when Pardee applied online, sending resumes, audio and video clips and letters of recommendation.

“They want to make sure that you’re good and that you will continue to be good because they announce it so far in advance,” Pardee said. “You have about 18 months to put everything together and fundraise.”

Though tiring, sophomore Nikko Lopez, 15, said the hard work was worth the experience.

“It was amazing, and it’s something I’ll probably never be able to do again,” Lopez said. “It made every practice and rehearsal worth it because we bettered ourselves and had our best performances yet.”

The band also performed in the National Memorial Day in Washington D.C. in 2012 and accompanied singer Trace Adkins at the American Country Awards in Las Vegas last year.

For more information, visit fhsbands.com or falconbandboosters.org.

Contact Henderson View reporter Caitlyn Belcher at cbelcher@viewnews.com or 702-383-0403.