NEW YORK (KFGO) – A group of six current and former band leaders from the Fargo-Moorhead area joined 400 others from around the U.S. and Mexico to perform in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Laura Johnson of Dilworth is the band director at Carl Ben Eielson Middle School and Fargo South High school. She said they arrived in New York City Sunday to begin practicing and marching together.
Johnson said an organization called Saluting America’s Band Directors made the trip possible.
“Part of this organization is we have a service through music project, so one of the things we did is prepared three pieces – Amazing Grace, Taps, and the Star Spangled Banner – and performed at Ground Zero at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum,” Johnson said. “We laid a wreath in honor of first responders and those who lost their lives on September 11th.”
Johnson was joined on the trip by her husband Noah who is the band director at Hawley, former Barnesville band director Aaron Romaine of Fargo, Abigail Berg who is from Hawley, but now teaching music in Rock Island, Illinois, former Hawley band director Keith Wander of Moorhead, and Reinertsen Elementary music teacher Lauren Wander Holleman from moorhead.
