Young Man From Woodbridge Will March In Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — For the first time ever, the Rutgers marching band will perform in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade this Thursday.

Macy's presented a $10,000 check to the Marching Scarlet Knights last fall when they were invited to march in the parade.

"It's hard to put into words how much this means" to the students, said band director Todd Nichols, who doubled the size of the band since taking the helm.

Daniel Dias, 20, from the Avenel section of Woodbridge, will be one of the 360 Rutgers students marching. Dias plays baritone in the band.

Raised in a musical household, Dias started playing trumpet in fourth grade, playing all the way through high school, including as drum major at Colonia High School.

“It’s an honor and privilege to be a part of something so monumental as this," said Dias. "It’s such an American tradition. I have no doubts this will really cement the legacy we leave behind in this organization and show everyone in the area that we are a really premiere organization that can represent Rutgers and the state.”

Music may be Dias' hobby, but history is his passion. When not practicing with the marching band, he works part-time as an archivist at the Woodbridge Library, and was appointed to serve on Woodbridge's Historic Preservation Commission.

He even started a school archive when he was at Colonia High School. Dias maintains an archive for his Mu Beta Psi music fraternity at Rutgers, and he sought to do the same for the marching band a couple years ago.

“I walked into the band director's office where some memorabilia was stored. It was 86 degrees, which is horrible for archival preservation,” said Dias, describing the poor condition of photos from the 1920s-’40s he found, along with a typed letter from the first band director appealing to then-Rutgers president William Demarest to start a marching band in 1915.

The original letter had been kept in a tight frame and was so badly damaged by light that the ink had almost worn off entirely from the paper.

“I was able to take all the materials home, popped them out of frames, scanned them at work, purchased archival boxes, cataloged everything, put them in folders, and now the band has an actual solidified archive,” said Dias.

Since that first project, he’s been in contact with band alumni, former directors and the Rutgers University archivist to try and beef up the band’s collection.

Dias is a junior history major in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers-New Brunswick. After graduation, he plans to pursue a degree in library science and become an archivist or collections curator with a university or museum.

Look for the Rutgers marching band to be placed somewhere between Snoopy and Santa Claus. The parade attracts an in-person crowd of 3.5 million, with another 27 million people watching from the comfort of their couches on Thanksgiving Day.

“I call it a bucket list event. It really is once in a lifetime,” said band director Nichols. “This is the first time ever: first for the school, first for the band, first for me. It's really hard to put into words how much this means to me and our band family. The students are beyond pumped to show the country the amazing things they do.”

Watch Dias be interviewed:

The 2023 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade will will air from 8:30 a.m. to noon this Thursday in all time zones. Tune in and watch!

This story was partially written and submitted by Lisa Intrabartola/Rutgers University media communications