Some Castlewood students won't be home for Thanksgiving, but their families can watch them on TV if they want. The small town school's marching band will be in the McDonald's Thanksgiving parade in Chicago.

It's not very often such a small school gets to participate in such a large parade and students are excited.

"Definitely, yeah. It should be a good time," senior band member Allison McEldowney said.

An experience students like McEldowney nearly missed out on. They had to apply to take part.

But with the size of this band, they didn't even qualify for this parade.

"Their minimum number of band members is 75 and we have 60 because we have 60 uniforms so we can only have 60," music teacher Vicki Bjerke said.

Sixty uniforms and one rejection.

But the band has been performing well in the last couple years, so judges who've critiqued them wrote letters recommending the parade accept the band despite its small numbers. The school also sent a DVD.

"The day they got the DVD, they called us and said they'd accept us to march in their parade," Bjerke said.

"I was definitely surprised. I didn't think a small-town school could get into a parade like this," McEldowney said.

With a band made up of students from high school seniors down to seventh graders, the band is sure to have some of the parade's youngest students. But its director is confident her band can stand up to any others walking down State Street in Chicago as much as it can any others walking down small streets at home.

"We are proud to represent small-town South Dakota on a national stage," McEldowney said.

The parade will be broadcast on WGN from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Thursday.