La Mirada High School joined other high schools in the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School district as well as high schools from ABC Unified to form the 605 All Star Marching Band and Color Guard at the 2025 Rose Parade. It was one of the largest bands to ever march in the Rose Parade with students from Artesia, Bellflower, Cerritos, Gahr, John Glenn, La Mirada, Mayfair and Norwalk high schools.

Kaitlyn Singh, junior, marched in the band playing the clarinet, shared, “Performing in the Rose Parade was unique. It’s something I’ll probably never get the chance to do again. It took a lot to learn to cooperate and become one band instead of eight bands.”  The group began rehearsals in September and continued through December in preparation for their final performance at the 136th Rose Parade in Pasadena, California. Color Guard Junior Jacqueline Calleja remarked, “It was fun. I got to meet new people. It was worth all of the rehearsals and seeing all of our hard work pay off.”

La Mirada High School Marching Band Director Robert Stearns explained that the planning began several years ago. “We had to create a non-profit, come up with uniforms and performance concepts, decide what extra staff was needed because 528 students it too many for just 8 directors, and then figure out how much this will all cost and how we are going to pay for it.” La Mirada students would rehearse in between normal marching band rehearsals. The group of students rehearsed every weekend in December. There were performances before the January 1 Rose Parade at Disneyland and Bandfest. Stearns continued, “Every time we performed the response from the audience was amazing. The size of the group and the sound that they made was over powering and the students felt it. It was so much fun to see the students learn new things from each other and make new friends. I had the honor of performing in the Tournament of Roses Honor Band as a performer my senior year of high school, and it was fun, but getting to experience the parade as a director was an even more amazing experience.” Stearns added that with the response from the community, it looks likely that more groups will apply to be a part of future Rose Parades.