SHU Alum Performs in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

Maeve St. Onge performs with national winter guard team in performance preview on "Today"

Thanksgiving week was full of exhilarating, once-in-a-lifetime experiences for Sacred Heart University alum and current strategic communication and public relations graduate student Maeve St. Onge ’22, MA ’23.

As a member of the national Fusion Winter Guard team, St. Onge performed in this year’s 96th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, which drew 27.7 million viewers on the NBC network and Peacock streaming app, according to variety.com.

Although this is St. Onge’s first year with Fusion, she was selected as the featured dancer in the team’s performance at Herald Square, which continued the story of Tiptoe, the baby reindeer balloon that first joined all the other characters sweeping over the parade route in 2021. “I had to do a little bit of acting, which was fun,” St. Onge said of her interaction with the 17-foot-tall blue reindeer balloon this year. “At first, my character was afraid of Tiptoe, but then she helps me overcome my insecurities and teaches me to fly, like she learned last year.”

Thanksgiving week began with a Monday morning appearance and preview performance on NBC’s Today. Team members were in hair and makeup by 2:30 a.m., and a bus transported them from Fusion’s base in New Jersey to the Today studios in New York City by 5 a.m. After some last-minute adjustments to the routine, the team performed in Rockefeller Center for the cameras and live audience.

After the show, they returned to New Jersey for more rehearsals before heading back into the city Monday evening for camera rehearsals.

St. Onge, who performed in color guard/winter guard during all four seasons of her high school career in Langrangeville, NY, said she knew Sacred Heart University was where she belonged because of the school’s guard. “I would see them at competitions when I was in high school, and I told myself, ‘One day, I’m going to be in that guard, and I’m going to be the captain.’” St. Onge realized both goals during her time as an undergraduate at SHU.

She encourages SHU’s incoming students to “Find something you are passionate about,” and pursue it in college.

“I’m so incredibly proud of Maeve,” said Keith Johnston, director of bands and orchestra. “She’s an exceptionally talented performer who brings an enormous amount of passion to the marching arts. When she said she was going to be marching in the Macy’s parade as part of Fusion Winter Guard, I was so excited for her—as well as two other SHU band alumni performing with Fusion, Bee Kelly and Caroline Fernandes. They’re all top performers!”.

St. Onge’s passion for guard did not fade after graduation. “Fusion was the closest national group, and they ranked in the top 10 in last year’s world championship competition,” she said. She also knew other previous members of Sacred Heart’s guard who went on to perform with the Fusion team. She auditioned and not only made the team, but her scores elevated her to a feature performer.

The Macy’s parade gave St. Onge one more memory that meant a great deal. She explained that she has a pre-show ritual of finding her parents in the crowd so they can wave to each other. “My parents were given tickets to Herald Square,” she said. “Finding them in the crowd and waving to them right before performing—that’s in my lifetime top 10 favorite memories.”
Fusion Winter Guard photos by Marissa Gagliano