Tournament of Roses Parade float will honor the late Mike Sewell, longtime Pickerington band director

Three years after launching a fundraising campaign, Karen Sewell will honor her late husband, Mike, with a float and marching band in the 2022 Tournament of Roses Parade.

Mike Sewell, longtime Pickerington High School and Pickerington High School Central band director, died April 15, 2017. Within months, Karen established the Michael D. Sewell Memorial Foundation to provide financial assistance to arts programs and projects in the Pickerington area.

A year later, Karen began raising funds to enter a float in the Rose Parade in Mike's honor. It was an event he loved, and it's a parade his bands marched in from Pickerington High School in 1993 and 1997 and from Pickerington High School Central in 2006 and 2010.

"There's nothing bigger," Karen said. "You've got an international audience, and it was a parade that was very important to Mike. If you want to bring attention to our recognition of music educators, there's no better event."

After raising approximately $271,000 to build a float – primarily through local solicitations and from trip packages paid for by those taking part in the parade entry – the foundation secured a spot in the 2021 Rose Parade.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the parade's cancelation, meaning Karen and fellow organizers would have to wait until 2022.

The float in the Jan. 1 parade will follow the theme “America’s Band Directors: We teach music. We teach life."

It will be accompanied by a band of 275 band directors from 50 states who teach music at all scholastic levels. The band will be led by former Ohio State University director Jon Waters and, according to Rose Parade organizers, it will be the first parade entry to have a float and a marching band.

"It's just a way to really spotlight band directors," Karen Sewell said. "They don't always get celebrated. I know how important these people are to their schools and communities."

Additionally, the float will honor five band directors: Janelle Guirreri, a music teacher at Fairfield and Violet elementary schools; Tom Landes, retired director of the Arcadia High School Apache Marching Band; Tim Lautzenheiser, vice president of education for Conn-Selmer Inc. and chair of the National Association of Music Education Music Honor Society; James Swearingen, a professor emeritus at Capital University, composer and conductor who worked with Sewell and other music departments throughout central Ohio; and Alfred Watkins, a retired music director at Lassiter High School (Georgia) and co-founder of the Minority Band Directors National Association.

Guirrrei is a 2004 Central graduate who learned under Mike Sewell and also attended Otterbein University for her degree in music education.

"I'm truly honored and blessed," she said. "With the recognition, I feel excited to go to work every day. I love my job. So that's a huge gift."

Guirreri said Mike Sewell inspired her to play music before she graduated from high school and he became a mentor who influenced her to become a music educator.

"He truly led by example for making music, helping kids make music and realizing the joy that brings," Guirreri said. "One of his big things was 'Service through music.' All of that is inspiring to me. As a teacher, I hope to work more with my students on that component."

Others who will ride on the float include Karen Sewell, Marc Parulekar, former Pickerington High School North band director and current Pickerington Schools music coordinator; and Janelle's husband, Matt Guirreri, an assistant director of bands at North who also directs various Pickerington Schools bands.

"I am excited to promote Mike's vision," Matt Guirreri said. "When he first came to Pickerington, his main mission was to take a band to the Rose Parade. He did it, and he did it several times.

"I'm also very excited band directors are getting recognized for leading a lifelong activity."

The Saluting America's Band Directors float is being designed by Artistic Entertainment Services, with help from Tom Batiuk, creator of the syndicated comic strip, “Funky Winkerbean." It features a giant drum major, flutist and trombonist being led by a band director while marching on a football field.

The accompanying band, which will have three rehearsals prior to the parade, will perform several pieces, including an arrangement of Meredith Willson’s “Seventy-Six Trombones," “The Stars and Stripes Forever” by John Philip Sousa, “Strike Up the Band” by George Gershwin and “Sing, Sing, Sing” by Louis Prima.

"I think these people are really going to have fun," Karen Sewell said.

Each band member also will donate a children's book from their home state to parade grand marshal LeVar Burton.

Karen Sewell said she's also hoping to present a gift card to Burton.

"To help the Saluting America’s Band Directors efforts to honor Rose Parade Grand Marshal LeVar Burton and to recognize all he has done to promote children’s literacy, the band of bands directors is holding a national book fair shopping event on Dec. 4," she said. "We encourage people to shop across the country at a Barnes and Noble store and use our voucher, No.12618542, listed under Michael Sewell Memorial Foundation.”

She said a portion of the sales will be donated back to the foundation.

“We will earn a Barnes and Noble gift card to present to LeVar Burton when we are in Pasadena," she said.

There will be in-store events and activities Dec. 4 at the Pickerington Barnes and Noble, 1738 North, Hill Road North. Support for the effort also can be dome by using the voucher for online purchases between Dec 4-9, or by donating through banddirectorsalute.org/tribute.

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This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Tournament of Roses Parade float will honor the late Mike Sewell, longtime Pickerington band director