The Brighton High School Marching Band will be performing in this year’s Detroit Thanksgiving Day parade, known traditionally as “America’s Thanksgiving Day Parade”.

The parade on Nov. 22nd will be broadcast locally on WDIV-TV in Detroit and will also be shown on network TV. Throughout the years the Brighton High School Marching Band has won a plethora of honors. Two years ago, at Festival Disney at Disney World, The Brighton group garnered the “Best Band Overall” award and received the “Giant Mickey” award. At the District Festival at Waterford Kettering earlier this year, Brighton got all “1’s”. Director Gabrielle Hoffman says the BHS bands do not compete at the state festival because they prefer to tour at that time of year. In 2002, the Bulldog Marching Band played in the London, England, New Year’s Day parade and was invited back, although they were unable to accept the invitation because of the huge expense involved.

Last year the band participated in the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Florida, which is pictured and where they won awards for “Best Show” and “Most Entertaining Band”. Hoffman says they could have gone to the Outback Bowl for a second year in a row, but she has a tradition of taking the group to the Thanksgiving Day parade once every four years so all of the members who have been in the band since their freshman year can say they played in the Thanksgiving Day parade at least once during their high school career.

Hoffman is a 20-year veteran of the Brighton Area Schools, starting out as an assistant director of the Scranton Middle School and Maltby Middle (now Intermediate) School bands. She was handed the baton as BHS Band Director when Rick Pethoud retired eight years ago. At 265 members, the BHS Marching Band may be the largest in the state, although Hoffman says it’s difficult to verify since such statistics are not normally recorded. (TT)