No, it wasn’t your imagination.
It is Erik Lynch, the director of bands at Verona High School, who appears in a back-to-school TV commercial for the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), the union that represents the state’s teachers. “We can’t wait to get the band back together,” Lynch says in the spot.
Lynch says he believes the NJEA found him through the New Jersey Marching Band Directors Association, a group that he co-founded to promote a different kind of marching band competition. He had two days to get a COVID test and get in front of the cameras for the shoot, which was held at Linden High School. (The NJEA has come out in favor of Gov. Phil Murphy’s executive order mandating that school employees show either proof of vaccination or submit to regular testing when schools reopen.)
As for getting the band back together in Verona, the Marching Maroon and White will do a full run-through of their fall show this Friday, August 27, at 8 pm at the high school. That will take place on the upper field and it is open to the public.
