Reflections 2009

On behalf of Dr. Rick Good, Dr. Jon Woods, Dr. Doug Rosener, Mr. Fran Kick, the band staff, the guard staff, and the staff of MUSIC TOURS UNLIMITED/MUSIC FESTIVALS, we wanted to say thank you to all of the students who once again "raised the bar" with another outstanding performance in the 2009 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  As Ron said in his closing remarks, "WOW!"  Thank you for making the fourth Macy's Great American Marching Band very special.  Your spirit, attitude, enthusiasm, and work ethic made rehearsals run quickly and efficiently and made performance day spectacular!  As you look back on this experience, I hope that you can be proud of what you accomplished in just a short amount of time. 

To the parents of these wonderful and talented young men and women, thank you for your support and for allowing your children to participate and providing the necessary funds for their trip.  To the band directors, thank you for what you did every day to help prepare the students to get to New York.  Their musicianship and preparedness was evident from your day to day teaching.  To the administration, thank you for approving the trip and supporting your school's music programs.  And to the community, we know that you are proud of these students.   They are not only wonderful and talented musicians, they are also wonderful people!  Many of you helped sponsor these young people with financial assistance, and on their behalf, we say thank you.

A very gracious thank you is extended to our wonderful chaperones.  Words are not enough to express our gratitude for all that you did to take care of your assigned students and duties.  For those of you who returned this year, thank you for two wonderful years and for helping us provide continuity.  We hope we will have the opportunity to work with you again in the near future.  And a special thank you to our nurse.  Not only did she take care of the students when needed, she pitched in and helped wherever help was needed.

We also need to thank our partners for helping to make this event and band a success.  Once again, the band, guard and dancers all looked fantastic in the wonderful uniforms provided by the Band Hall.  Keith, you and your staff are so wonderful to work with.  Thank you for the wonderful quality that you give us with your uniforms.  Thank you!  Jupiter and Mapex, thank you for providing outstanding brass, piccolo and percussion instruments.  These sections not only looked great but sounded wonderful as well.  The Quantum Series is outstanding and great quality!  Clyde Morrison and his staff at Gadsden Music, thank you!  Thank you for arranging with Jupiter for delivery, for partnering with us, for taking care of all of the new instruments, assigning them to the students, and distributing them as well.  Thank you Vic Firth for providing the mallets and sticks for the drum line and to Sabian for providing those wonderful, crisp-sounding cymbals!  Special thanks to Remo for providing all of the drum heads. Thank you Glaceau for providing us the bottled vitamin water that kept the students and the staff from dehydrating.  We appreciate all that you that you do!

The fourth installment of the Macy's Great American Marching Band has continued to raised the standard for the other Macy's Bands to follow.  Once again, we are all grateful to each and every one of you.  We hope that this will be a memory that will last a life time!  We wish you all the very best of luck in everything you do!

Best Wishes,

Dennis Rhoads, President                                                    

NOTES FROM MACY'S, STUDENTS & PARENTS..........................

Here are some comments from the members and their families of The Macy's Great American Marching Band as they reflect on their experience.  As they are submitted we will add them as we reflect back on this wonderful experience.  We have not included full names for security reasons.