'So beyond excited': Middletown woman leads Rutgers band in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

It’s a family tradition. As sure as the turkey going into the oven, Amelia Ainbinder and her mom watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV.

“The first thing we do is get up and watch the parade together,” mom Leona Zink said.

“It’s not something we keep on in the background,” Ainbinder said. “We watch it.”

They won’t be watching it on TV this year. Ainbinder, who hails from Middletown, will be leading the Rutgers University marching band in its first-ever appearance in the parade. The fifth-year senior is a drum major for the 350-piece band, which is one of just three college bands chosen to participate out of 100 applicants.

“I am so beyond excited,” Ainbinder said. “When we found out, I literally fell to the floor.”

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This honor is the culmination of years of sweat and hustle. Coming out of Middletown High School North, where she played clarinet and was the drum major for two autumns, Ainbinder juggled a variety of jobs while paying her way through college — at one point working full-time overnight shifts at UPS during the school year.

“She’s a fabulous drum major,” Rutgers band director Todd Nichols said. “She’s very good at uplifting people — flipping that spirit switch, so people get enthused to work hard.”

To earn a prominent spot in America’s most-watched parade, there is no other way.

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'Trust your eyes'

Ainbinder started out at Rutgers as an astrophysics major. Before long, she decided to follow her heart and switch to music education. All the while she footed the tuition bill with jobs at Starbucks, Wawa and, during the COVID year, by slinging boxes overnight for UPS. In spare moments, she practiced conducting in front of a mirror to the sound of a metronome, recording herself to perfect the technique.

“I wish I had half her stamina,” Zink said.

This past summer, Ainbinder served as an instructor with the Morris Hills High School marching band. Though she has much to offer, it should be noted that conducting a college band is a different animal.

“Since the (Rutgers) band is so big, there’s a huge sound delay,” she said. “You have to trust your eyes more than your ears.”

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Rutgers has four drum majors, three of whom conduct the field shows together — one on the midfield podium and the others on flanks.

“Sometimes it sounds like one side is playing at one tempo and the other side is playing at another tempo, and you think, ‘Oh my goodness, it doesn’t sound like everything is in time,’" Ainbinder said. “In those moments you really have to turn your ears off almost completely and just hone in on the drum line — make sure you’re conducting with them.”

She added, “As long as you don’t have a blip in your conducting, it will figure itself out and no one will notice.”

As big as the crowds can be at Rutgers football games — up to 52,000 — exponentially more folks will have eyes on Ainbinder and the band Thursday morning.

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'A little nerve-wracking'

The application process to march in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade begins two years in advance and includes a video audition and letters of recommendation. Twelve bands made the cut this year — Rutgers, Texas Tech and Alabama A&M among colleges, plus six high school bands, the New York Police Department Band, and two all-star bands.

The parade route is 2.5 miles long, starting near the northern end of Central Park and winding through the streets of Manhattan. Ainbinder and Rutgers’ other drum majors won’t be conducting, but they will be setting the pace as the front line of a block of Marching Scarlet Knights that will run 100 yards deep.

“It’s going to be surreal, and a little nerve-wracking,” she said.

What’s to worry about? There will only be 3 million spectators lining the route — and another 25 million-plus watching on NBC.

“It’s one of the biggest things in the band’s history,” Ainbinder said.

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While parading, Rutgers’ band will play the school’s two fight songs (“The Bells Must Ring” and “Colonel Rutgers”) as well as a Spice Girls song, a nod to the band’s 2025 international tour to London. What the Marching Scarlet Knights will play at NBC’s stage area — a standstill performance that almost certainly will air live on the network — remains under wraps.

“You’ll have to tune in,” Nichols said.

The broadcast runs from 8:30 a.m. to noon. You know who won’t be tuning in? Amelia Ainbinder and her mom.

Leona Zink will be stationed along the route, watching Amelia live the dream. All those nights at UPS, days behind the Wawa counter and years practicing music led to this once-in-a-lifetime moment.

The Thanksgiving turkey can wait.

Jerry Carino is community columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on the Jersey Shore’s interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Rutgers band at Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade led by Middletown woman