Students to march in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
Once again Bigfork music students will share their talents on the national stage of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Sophomores Ally Pancoast and Ashton Edgerton will leave on Nov. 20 for New York to join the Macy’s Great American Marching Band for the 2015 parade.
The band is made up of over 250 high school students from all 50 states.
This will be the fourth year in a row Bigfork has sent students to march with the band.
Edgerton plays the trumpet and Pancoast the flue and piccolo.
Both have been participating in band since the fifth grade.
For Edgerton, this is the only chance he thinks he’ll have to take advantage of the once in a lifetime experience, as he plans to focus on football during his upperclassman years.
“It’s really an opportunity many students don’t get to have,” Edgerton said. “Who wouldn’t want to play in the Macy’s Parade?”
Neither have participated in anything quite like the Macy’s Parade, though Pancoast played with the Air Force Wind Academy Band when they came to Bigfork.
However both are excited for the experience of participating in the Great American Marching band and being in the parade.
Pancoast has never been on a plane before and is excited to see the sights of New York City, as well as meet other high school band students from around the country.
“I’m kind of excited to see how good everyone is,” she said.
Once Pancoast and Edgerton arrive in New York with band teacher Randi Tunnell, they will have long rehearsal sessions before the day of the parade.
Tunnell works for the Great American Marching band during parade time so she can chaperone her students to New York.
While neither have any plans to pursue music in a serious capacity after school, both very much enjoy playing their instruments.
“It’s kind of like to get your focus off other events in your life,” Pancoast said. “To free your mind almost.”
“It’s something I wasn’t thinking I would like but I started playing, it was something I was good at,” Edgerton said.