Trabuco Hills Thundering Mustangs Fundraising For Macy's Parade

MISSION VIEJO, CA — This is not a test. The young musicians of the Trabuco Hills High School Thundering Mustangs marching band are performing Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2020. At roughly $2,000 per band-member, it will take a village to get them there.

Macy's announced the band's good fortune at a spring concert, held by Saddleback Valley Unified School District. At the event, Macy's creative producer Wesley Whatley invited the marching band to join the annual holiday parade with fanfare that included a great deal of confetti.

THHS will be the first California High School band to appear at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade since 2015.

With just over a year left to fund-raise, the marching band supporters are rolling up their sleeves to get to work, a process not unlike learning how to march and play at the same time, according to director Andy Julian. After months of training, learning how to breathe properly, and the artistry of the movements, band members put it all out on the field, and supporters want all of Orange County to share in their school pride.

The marching band received accolades for the 2018 "Hazy Shade of Winter" routine, combining artistry and unique flair in the post-apocalyptic display--including the color guard waving radioactive symbol-flags.

They have brought home the Western Band Association Championship ten out of 27 years, and no strangers to travel, they performed two years ago in Washington, D.C.'s National Independence Day Parade.

According to the instrumental music director Andy Julian, the marching band can attribute their invitation to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade to their "unorthodox" routines. They continue to work on a program that will broadcast well, as well as engage the crowd at the parade.

"We are in the beginning stages of trying to send 140 kids and 25 chaperones and staff to New York City, 2020," Amy Vivona, a committee member said. Sending the marching band from Orange County to New York City will cost upwards of $330,000 without fundraising, organizers said.

"We want every member with us when we get on the plane," Vivona told Patch.

Support your Thundering Mustangs by donating to the Marching Band online.