Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

For over 75 years, Macy’s has provided an American tradition.  This tradition celebrates the start of the Christmas season, and every Thanksgiving Day, thousands of people come to New York City to experience it.  Millions nationwide watch it gleefully on TV.  It is the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and Academy has been a part of this great American tradition for 15 years.

The root of the parade stems from European tradition.  In the 1920’s, many of Macy’s department store employees were first generation immigrants.  Proud of their new American heritage, they wanted to celebrate the American holiday with the same type of festivity they loved in Europe, a parade!          

These days, it is Academy’s job to transport Macy’s employees from all over the North East.  They come from as far North as Maine, and as far South as Virginia!  Academy buses drop employees at the New Yorker Hotel in Manhattan, where they change into their costumes.  They transform into clowns, balloons handlers, float personnel and other assorted characters.  After the transformation, Academy shuttles them to the top of the parade route.

With much planning and preparation, our drivers, dispatchers, sales staff, maintenance personnel, and terminal managers join together each year with Francis and Mark Tedesco to see that the job gets done.  With something as exciting as a parade, there can be special challenges. On one specific instance, Academy had to acquire a special articulate bus so that one of the costumed characters could fit through the door!  But any person who works for Academy knows that no challenge is too big to overcome.

This Thanksgiving everything went off without a hitch.  A special thanks goes out to Mike Smalls from our Casino Operations department.  His first assignment after returning from surgery was to work in the Macy’s Central Command Center.  He did an excellent job making sure all went well on the street below!  With another successful year under our belts, we hope to be part of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade tradition for many years to come!