Broad Street crowd loves Colorado marching band leading Mummers

The world-famous Mummers Parade kicked off this morning in Philadelphia with a twist: a troupe of teenagers from Colorado led the march down Broad Street.

The Arapahoe High School Marching Band was picked to start off the strutting.

Grena Fisher has been going to the Mummers Parade since she was 7 years old, and she said the high schoolers lit up the show.

They “made the parade awesome, made the parade vicious,” she said. “Please come back again.”

The marching band made the long-planned trip despite a tragedy. A student allegedly walked into the school Dec. 13, shot a 17-year old classmate and then killed himself. The classmate has since died from her injuries.

Germantown resident Ann Ricksecker, a longtime Mummers fan, said giving the students a special role in the parade was the right thing to do.

“I think we make a statement about humanity and that’s a really great statement,” she said. “This is hopefully an event that’ll help them sort of resolve something emotionally about that.”