Three Lackawanna County natives will usher in the new year marching together.
Old Forge resident Elaine Ort, the band director at Western Wayne High School, will march in the 137th Rose Parade for the second time with Saluting America’s Band Directors, a project of the Michael D. Sewell Memorial Foundation that aims to recognize the accomplishments of band directors around North America.
At the 2026 Rose Parade, she will be joined by two former students — Dunmore resident Ryan Kozich, band director at Wallenpaupack Area Middle School, and Andrew Gallagher, a Taylor native who now lives in Hagerstown, Maryland, and is a band director at South Hagerstown High School.
They will be among 350 band directors from the United States, Canada, Mexico and Panama who will march in the 5½-mile-long parade that steps off in Pasadena, California, on Jan. 1. They are marching with the theme “America’s Band Directors: We teach music. We teach life,” with an accompanying float, and led by Jon Waters, director of bands at Bowling Green State University.
Ort first marched in the Rose Parade in 2022, the first year the group participated. The following year, she marched with the group in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, joined by Clarks Summit resident Vincent Lorusso, the band director at Blue Ridge High School.
Seeing their teacher perform in the Thanksgiving parade inspired Kozich and Gallagher to apply to march themselves.
“That’s when I decided whenever the next opportunity arrived, that was when I was going to commit and audition,” Kozich said.
Kozich and Gallagher, who will both be going to California for the first time, said the application was simple and they were elated when they learned they were selected.
Kozich, who will be playing trombone, said he is both excited and terrified about the opportunity to perform in a parade that airs all around the world.
“It’s really cool and scary,” he said.
Gallagher, who will play the mellophone, knew he wanted to march with other band directors when he took his current position three years ago. He said he had a similar feeling to one he had in the fall of 2015 when he learned he would be marching in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with the Incomparable Golden Rams Marching Band at West Chester University his freshman year.
Gallagher said the experience is one he is looking forward to but nervous about. With the exception of a few local parades, he hasn’t performed in a large parade since 2015.
Andrew Gallagher poses in his uniform and with his mellophone that he will march in the Rose Parade in. Gallagher is one of three Lackawanna County natives that will be marching in the 2026 parade. (Submitted)
Dunmore resident Ryan Kozich, the band director at Wallenpaupack Area Middle School, poses with his trumpet and attire he will wear when he marches in the Rose Parade as part of Saluting America’s Band Directors. He will march in the parade for the first time. (Submitted)
Old Forge resident Elaine Ort, the band director at Western Wayne High School, poses for a photo during her first appearance in the Rose Parade as part of Saluting America’s Band Directors in 2022. (Submitted)
Western Wayne High School band director Elaine Ort poses with Blue Ridge High School band director Vincent Lorusso when they marched in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as part of Saluting America’s Band Directors. (Submitted)
Andrew Gallagher plays with the Incomparable Golden Rams marching band at West Chester University. (Submitted)
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Andrew Gallagher poses in his uniform and with his mellophone that he will march in the Rose Parade in. Gallagher is one of three Lackawanna County natives that will be marching in the 2026 parade. (Submitted)
“This is a little bit different than the last few years that I’m used to, but I’m super, super excited to be able to do it,” he said.
Kozich said he is ecstatic to be marching with Ort, under whom he was a student teacher while studying music education at Marywood University. She was one of the first people he texted when he found out he was selected.
“It was a full-circle moment,” he said, adding he admires Ort for her stamina, performing almost every weekend in addition to teaching. “She’s seen me grow up.”
Gallagher said playing with Ort, who was his band teacher when he was a freshman at Riverside High School, feels surreal but makes the experience personal.
“It will be very, very cool for me and hopefully also for her to be able to march side by side,” he said.
Ort, who will also be playing the mellophone, said the application process was similar to the first time she applied back in 2021. In addition to being selected to march, she also was chosen to be part of a concert band that will record music to be sent to venues and conventions nationwide.
She said she is excited to march with Kozich and Gallagher, likening it to a family reunion.
“I’m so honored to share this experience with two former students and have them experience for the first time the same things that I got to feel back in 2022,” Ort said.
She is also looking forward to meeting band directors from around North America. Ort said directors from Pittsburgh, Shamokin, Alaska, Alabama and California that she has marched with in previous years will be participating this year.
“Being able to get back with them and hear how their school years are going and how folks from other states are dealing with their daily challenges in the buildings, and tips and tricks that they’re using with their students, it’s just an invaluable educational resource,” Ort said.
She and her husband planned to fly to California on Friday to meet with friends before rehearsals start Sunday. She planned to pick up Gallagher and Kozich on Sunday.
The public can donate to the Saluting America’s Band Directors project online at banddirectorsalute.org. The parade will start at 8 a.m. and will be broadcast on major television networks.