Cheer and Band Take to the Streets

This year’s annual 2025 Thanksgiving Day Parade was held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Where they had an audience of thousands of people in person, and about ten thousand people watching from their homes. Now for the parade they included many high school marching bands one of them being Clearview Regional. “I think it’s a really neat opportunity that we are able to get.” Stated by Tyler Wiernusz. “I’m so proud of the band and everybody in it!” Said by Meredith Sorbello. What many people may often wonder is how all this happens. Let's take a look at some inside from Clearview's band director Wiernusz. 

“So this parade is special. It is an annual parade that is part of a national television broadcast, as well as a national group of parades. There is an invitation into the parade. We have to apply an application process that looks at past accomplishments of the band, so we go through the application process, we submit it about a year in advance, then we get a group of bands that are selected from around the country.” Now for Wiernusz this is the second time that he and the band has gone through and has been accepted into contributing towards the Thanksgiving parade. First one being back in 2022. 

Not only was the band there but also Clearview’s Cheer team, Head coach Sorbello states on the preparations that were done in order to get the “girls” ready for the parade. “First we had to choreograph a dance for sleigh bells, we sent it out to the girls then they learned it and then I reminded them to learn it walking. So we practiced walking in the school after school somedays, just in the hallways, and then in the gym, making turns and then also doing the performance that we were doing with the marching band.”

 She takes pride in all events that were performed that day by both the cheerleaders and people of the band. 

Everyone who contributed towards the parade stated that they had a phenomenal time and that it was a “great opportunity to represent the band from an outside perspective.” As Wiernusz stated,  “I mean anytime you’re dealing with something that is bringing together one hundred and fifth teen students from across the school in front of different people, regardless if they are marching band, color guard, cheer, you know you’re going to have a bonding experience an experience where students have to find common grounds to work for a common goal.” 

He believes that such events like this really create a bond with students in the band and can create good working relationships given that there was a lot of velocity between bands. 

With this both Sorbello and Wiernusz feel as though these events will definitely greater the chances of more high scale events in the future however only time can truly tell. All they can do is continue what they do and hope for the best towards the future.