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For those who turned on the TV on Thanksgiving, chances are you stumbled across the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, held annually in New York City. This year, channel surfers may have spotted two familiar faces.

Of the 237 kids in the Macy’s Great American Marching Band, two Valley High School students, Katelyn DeLoach and Gabby Stephens, were among the ranks. 

The Rams earned a spot to march in the famous parade earlier in the year, after a video audition, pitched to them by the Valley Band Director, and Katelyn’s mom, Kitty DeLoach. The band director said over 1,000 kids applied for a spot. 

After months of waiting to hear, there were many emotions when the two heard they made the cut. 

For Katelyn, it was initial sadness. The program had accidentally sent the wrong automated email, leading the junior to believe she had not been chosen. 

Thankfully, the rejection was a mistake and Katelyn was chosen as one of the Alto Saxophone players in the band. Once she got the news, Katelyn was ecstatic. The roller coaster of emotions was soon communicated to her bandmate, Stephens. 

The Valley senior had to wait longer to hear, having applied later. 

“I checked the [web]site to see when the instrument slots had been filled,” Stephens said the program only accepts a certain number of musicians per instrument. It said flutes and piccolos have been filled and I was like, ‘Well, I haven’t gotten an email. I guess I’m not one of them.”

It wasn’t until late in the evening she checked her email. 

“I checked it, and I saw the congratulations [message], and I jumped up and ran out of my room and woke everybody in the house,” Stephens said smiling.

Sponsors and personal donations allowed the pair to pay for the program fees and flight to New York. Kitty thanked San Marcos, Newton Grocery, Cusseta Laundromat, Southern Brush Cutting and Grading, Etherton Family Dentist, Chambley’s, Valley Chiropractic, Valley Vision Center, and more small businesses, friends and family for their support. 

After being accepted, the musicians were sent their sheet music to memorize. The band is expected to have the music memorized before getting to New York, where they practice marching drills together. 

“They sent us one little song, really short, that we will play repeatedly as we are marching to Herald Square,” Katelyn said. “Then they give us another song, which is our Herald Square song, that we play right in front of the cameras, that’s the moment you see us perform [on TV].”

Because performers are selected from all over the country, the actual rehearsal time together is crunched into a few days. 

Kitty accompanied her students to New York City for the big performance as one of the few band director chaperones chosen. 

Thanksgiving morning was a cold and rainy one, not ideal for a marching band. 

“We had to be on the buses by 2:30 in the morning, Thanksgiving morning,” Kitty said. “They got to practice from 3:40 a.m. to 3:50 a.m. on Harold Square with the camera crew.”

The bad weather had driven away any nerves for Katelyn and Stephens that morning. 

“I was more worried about the cold,” Stephens laughed. “And then we’re going around the corner, and I see where people are stopping, I see the cameras, and I’m like, ‘Oh this is actually happening, this is real. I’m actually here right now.”

Kitty recalled running through the rain to find the girls at the endpoint, “[Katelyn’s] going to be miserable. I hope Gabby’s okay, [was what] just kept going that through my head. But when I got to them, they were on this high. They were like, ‘Oh my gosh, I did it. I did it. I finished the Macy’s Parade’!”

When asked if they made any friends in the few days in New York, the bandmates smiled at each other. Katelyn said she met someone who she now considers a best friend and the environment allowed them all to get very close very quickly. Both girls remarked on meeting people from different places. 

“You don’t realize you have an [southern] accent until you’re around people who aren’t from where you’re from,” Stephens said while Katelyn nodded. “I think I made most of my friends just because of the way I talk. They were just like, ‘Y’all’s accents are cool’.”

Between practices, one day had them do an eight-hour-long rehearsal, the kids got a chance to explore the Big Apple. They saw the Rockettes, Radio City Music Hall, Times Square and more landmarks. 

For Thanksgiving dinner, all of the performers were served the traditional turkey, mashed potatoes and more. 

“The only downside about it is that it wasn’t Southern Thanksgiving food,” Katelyn said. “I was really sad to not see dressing.”

The response from back home was immediate. 

“Right after we got off the bus, I was already checking Snapchat and Facebook,” Katelyn said. Stephens chimed in, “There were people saying ‘I was looking for you,’ or ‘I saw you’.”

The senior added she had a family who kept multiple live streams of the parade going, in hopes of catching a glimpse of her. 

The Rams agreed that it was an experience of a lifetime. 

“I’m in theater, I’ve always aspired to be on Broadway shows, singing in front of people, so to go to New York and live out that dream of just being there, it was the best experience of my life,” Katelyn said. 

The saxophone player added, “I wouldn’t have done it without, you know, my mom. I wouldn’t have done it without my support system…Without sponsorships and these people who gave money and donated for me to go. It’s just so special to me. It made my inner child happy…It makes me want to cry, how thankful I am.”

Stephens, who aspires to be a professional musician and plans to study music in college, felt at home in New York. 

“It was really awesome being able to go and see, just how musical it is up there. They actually had a shop up there… that was for flutes. It was a flute shop. That’s all they had. They had bass flutes, alto flutes, piccolos, wooden flutes; it was awesome.”

The senior hopes to begin at Auburn and make her way to the Manhattan School of Music. 

“To be able to see I’d actually have an opportunity somewhere, in America, to be able to do [music] and succeed, it was really, really cool,” she said. 

The bandmates not only gained new friends in New York but strengthened their own bond. 

“It was fun getting to experience IT with Gabby, because we’ve been friends for a few years, and I think this trip brought us closer,” Katelyn said. “I think the Macy’s Parade strengthened us as people, as musicians, gave us a lot of good memories, but also helped our friendship.”