COLUMBUS, Ohio — Inside a barn in Pasadena, California, Karen Sewell is preparing to strike up the band.
A float that will be displayed in Saturday’s Tournament of Roses Parade will honor the life of Mike Sewell.
“I probably spent a half-hour last night of people who said ‘I knew Mike’,” Karen Sewell said.
Mike and Karen Sewell had been married almost 38 years when he passed away in 2017.
10TV first told you the story in August of how the longtime teacher and marching band director and his bride spent their honeymoon in California watching OSU in the Rose Bowl and taking in the Tournament of Roses Parade. It ignited a passion for Mike.
He would march in that same parade four times after that with marching bands from Pickerington.
“You can tell they’re so excited to be here,” Karen said. “I know it’s a bucket list [item] for a lot of people.”
Now, thanks to the Michael D. Sewell Memorial Foundation, Sewell will be honored at Saturday’s Rose Parade. Two hundred and seventy band directors representing every state across the country will be there to participate.
“We had a banquet last night [and] I got to put a medal on every single director and every staff member and they are all ages, shapes, sizes…it’s crazy, the energy,” Karen said.
Ranging in ages from 19 to 72 and led by former Ohio State Marching Band Director Jon Waters, they’ll march with the float that bears Sewell’s likeness. It’s a 55 foot by 15-foot float decked out in detail from black seaweed boots to the oatmeal stadium to ground-up coconut macaroon stars.
“That those people are getting a moment…that’s what [Mike] would be happy about,” Karen said. “That somebody who normally couldn’t be in the Rose Parade, we just made that happen.”
A moment for many. A measure that can’t be counted. All for a man who hit the high notes in countless lives.