On Parade

While most Americans tune in to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade from the comfort of their couches, two Wilmington-area women have made participating in the parade an annual affair and beloved tradition.

Situated between a Baby Shark float with K-pop singers and a balloon of SpongeBob SquarePants, Topsail High School senior SHAYNE HUGHES spent Thanksgiving morning playing Jimmy Buffett’s “Cheeseburger in Paradise” on repeat through New York City.

This was the third consecutive year Hughes has marched as a clarinet player with the Macy’s Great American Marching Band. “It was so fun, I wish it never ended,” she says.

The band, which was 218 students strong, oscillated between “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” “Sweet Caroline,” and a drumline cadence and chant about cheeseburgers and Macy’s, she says.

Hughes (left) has been playing clarinet since the fourth grade, and she first submitted an audition tape to Macy’s her freshman year. Once accepted, she says, students can return for the rest of their high school career and later on, every five years as alumni. Over the past three years, she has made and sustained friendships with other band members from across the country, especially the clarinetists she roomed with from California, Florida, and South Dakota.

Hughes financed this year’s trip to New York by babysitting and working two summer jobs at The Daily Grind Surf City and also at Burrito Shak, a job she still holds. “I’m really appreciative of the opportunity, and it still kind of blows my mind,” she says. “When I was younger, I used to watch the parade every single year, and dreamed of just going to see it.”

Hughes plans to continue playing clarinet in college next year, and is deciding between a music education major or nursing.

During the parade, Hughes followed the direction of parade marshal SUE MEIER, who is general manager of Wilmington’s Copycat Print Shop. Meier’s sister has worked at the Macy’s Manhattan office for many years, and Macy’s employees sponsor the thousands of volunteers who keep the parade running. Since 2004, Meier has dressed up as a clown – groups of them entertain the crowds between floats and balloons – a handful of times, and for the past two years, she has served as a parade marshal.

This Thanksgiving, Meier was stationed at the parade’s first turn at Columbus Circle, working to help balloon handlers and floats navigate a curb and coordinate with the communication hub to keep everyone on schedule.

“This year was great – it was cold and a little windy, which is not ideal – but the parade went off without a hitch,” says Meier, shown above with her sister Barbe Mariotti, who lives in Texas and also volunteered this year.

For Meier, the day was a family affair: “This year my sister from Texas came in, my niece and a friend of hers who go to Boston College came down, and a niece in Cary went up,” she says. “It’s a crazy, fun tradition, and I go when my schedule allows it.”

When she’s not participating in the parade, Meier watches the television broadcast. The in-person experience, however, is unmatched, she says.

“To actually be in it – to see all these people in the streets, … and people are pressed up against the windows of their apartments looking out, it’s just super exciting,” she says. “At Columbus Circle this year, every balloon floated over my head … it’s just a wonderful experience.”