NEW YORK, NY – Helping honor the nation’s veterans, the Bellefonte Area High School and Glendale Junior-Senior High School Bands will march in “America’s Parade,” the 95th annual New York City Veterans Day Parade, on Nov. 11. The parade is the largest celebration of service in the nation, with participants from all over the U.S. marching up Fifth Avenue.
“We are thrilled to welcome the best high school musicians in the country to participate in this annual celebration of those who have served this great nation and protected our way of life,” said Vince McGowan, founding president of the United War Veterans Council, which produces the parade. “We know the day will be a memorable experience for everyone involved, participants and spectators alike.”
Leading the parade as Grand Marshal is former New York City Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, which is especially meaningful as the Marine Corps is the parade’s featured service branch this year.
The two bands will join more than 25,000 participants, including active military members, veterans of every U.S. war since World War II and other marching bands from across the nation, who will march up New York City’s iconic Fifth Avenue in front of 600,000-plus parade spectators in the heart of the media capital of the world.
While in New York, the Bellefonte and Glendale students will perform the Star Spangled Banner in the Band of Pride concert on Nov. 10. The U.S. Marine Corps Band, along with the 1,000 high school band members participating in the parade, will be a part of this annual tradition in Times Square.
A special broadcast of parade highlights will air in nine of the top markets in the United States, as well as at Department of Veterans Affairs’ hospitals across the United States and military bases worldwide.