text: Jersey String Band in West Deptford forms from folded Broomall
  NATIONAL PARK - Just shy of it's 90th Mummers Parade, the Peter A. Broomall String Band will retire its charter in 2019 and end its streak of South Jersey-based mummery.
  But from its end, a new Gloucester County string band club will emerge — the first new band to join the Philadelphia String Band Association and march in the New Year's Day parade in 12 years.
  More:New Year's Day must-haves for the Philly Mummers parade
  More:A study in sequins: Art projects connect local kids with Mummers
  "I don't think anybody ever thought another band would join the parade," said Pat Walton.
  Walton has paraded with National Park's Broomall String band for six years. Last year, he led the band as its captain.
  When the Jersey String Band takes to Broad Street for the first time, Walton will be the band's first-ever captain and president.
  "The goal is to make it to the street in 2020," Walton, of West Deptford, said. "If we hit the street in 2020, we've won."
  That street would be Broad Street, the home of the oldest folk tradition in America, the Philadelphia Mummers Parade. Walton said the new band hopes to raise $30,000 over the next six months to buy costumes, props and transportation for New Year's Day.
  Tuesday's parade will mark Broomall's 89th march as a string band, according to its leader, Peter J. Broomall Sr.
  "It's been five generations," he said.
  The Broomall String band was one of the few remaining family-owned Mummers clubs.
  Peter A. Broomall started it in 1930 in South Philadelphia. It relocated to National Park in the 1950s when the Broomalls moved to the Jersey side of the Walt Whitman Bridge.
  The band continued rehearsing at the Gallagher Club in South Philly until the Broomalls bought its Hessian Avenue clubhouse in National Park.
  Peter A. was Broomall's first captain, followed by his son James V. Broomall, who is 93. Peter J. Broomall Sr. and his son Peter J. Broomall Jr. also served as captains.
  The surviving Broomalls — including the youngest in the line, Pete Broomall Jr.'s son Mason — will march together for the last time Tuesday, leading the band on New Year's Day. Peter J. Broomall Sr. will serve as the band's final captain.
  "This is something we talked about since 2008," Peter J. Broomall Sr. explained.
  "It's a bittersweet decision that's been discussed and kicked around off and on for the last 10 years. Now it's time."
  More:Santino's Dragons slay bullying with Mummers Parade skit
  The family sold its longtime base in 2015 to Members Church of God International.
  Since the sale, the group rehearsed at Westville United Methodist Church or the National Park fire hall, Broomall Sr. said.
  The band practiced at the fire hall for the final time last Wednesday. The rehearsal went on across the street from their former clubhouse.
  Connie and Tim Erikson — a sax-playing couple from Swedesboro who've been in the band for more than 25 years — are already emotional about the Broomall band's end.
  "It's the foundation of our family," Tim Erikson said.
  "It's the reason we're family," his wife Connie added.
  The two met and fell in love at Broomall rehearsals. Their kids — Ryan, 9 and Charlotte, 6 — have Broomall in their blood, Connie Erikson said.
  "They just love this band more than just about anything. They love it to pieces," the mother and sax player said.
  "Our kids just grew up coming to rehearsal, in a baby sack, on our backs, or the music director used to hold them and direct."
  As the family left the fire hall after rehearsal — sax cases and sequined hats in hand — there was a new giddiness about them.
  They were about to take the long way home, past the new rehearsal space for the newly formed Jersey String Band.
  The new band, created from 30 of the 35 playing members of Broomall, will rehearse in 2019 at Green-Fields Volunteer Company's hall in West Deptford.
  Green-Fields has "Future Home of the Jersey String Band" posted on its digital sign outside of its hall.
  "The sign is awesome," Connie Erikson said.
  "It's like it's real," her husband, Jersey String Band's vice president, added.
  The crew that will join Jersey String Band is bubbling over with excitement for the 2020 parade.
  By the week after Christmas, with days to go before the Mummers Parade, Walton said he's usually fairly stressed out with last-minute parade prep.
  "But since March when we knew this was happening, I've been thinking about 2020," Walton, the Jersey String Band's captain and president, explained.
  In addition to a new rehearsal space, the Jersey String Band expects to have a little help from some West Deptford High School Marching Band parents. Walton worked as a prop builder for the high school band in his hometown. His son Patrick plays the glockenspiel for Broomall and will join the new band with his dad.
  "So many people see the (Mummers Parade) and think they have to go to Philly to do that," Walton said. "We'll be right in West Deptford."
  The Broomall String Band is the fourth band in the string band division of the Philadelphia Mummers Parade to go before the judges on Jan. 1. The parade will be televised by PHL17. Thirty-five musicians will be joined by a dozen dancers with the Tricia Sloan Dance Studio for Broomall's routine "The Last Masked Parade."