On Thursday, Oct. 17, people lined the street to watch the homecoming parade. Participants marched down the street, rode on floats and gave out candy.
The theme for homecoming this year was Las Vegas; due to this, many floats were Vegas themed. Floats included dice, roulette colors, card suits and, notably, a Flamingo Hotel themed float by FCCLA.
Lots of time and effort were put into planning and building this float. “We’ve been using Tuesday lunches for the last couple weeks to plan,” Jessica Teal, one of the club’s sponsors, said. “(Club members) have been working on identifying the decorations and what colors and what’s the theme of our float as it relates to the float theme and homecoming theme.”
Members put together a shopping list for the float. Chapter officer Adeline Freytag (11) was in charge of putting together an Amazon shopping cart.
Members went over to Teal’s house the night before the parade to build the float. “Ms. Teal got us food,” Freytag said. “We just hung out. We started by decorating the side, and then we built up the back where we had our Las Vegas sign.”
The project didn’t come without challenges. Chapter officer Lyla Bumford said, “All of our balloons flew off of our float on the … way to the parking lot. So by the time that it got here, it was not as beautiful as it was, but we just blew up some extra balloons.”
The club also encountered some financial difficulties. “We had four students qualify for nationals, so financially, that definitely took a little bit of a hit for us …. we try to be mindful of how much we’re spending on decorations this year,” Teal said. “We get really, really creative in the family and consumer sciences world …. we have a ton of stuff that we try to repurpose.”
Members felt this was one of the better years for their float. “I think this year was the most organized we’ve ever been because we actually got our supplies on time and were not scrambling till the last minute,” Bumford said.
The club has a strong membership. “We have … kids that are just excited to be in FCCLA, so it just helps carry that momentum from year to year,” Teal said. “We’re growing in membership …. we are in the process of still taking members for the year. So we have our open membership process until the end of October.”
The Student Council asked the English department to vote on all the floats.
- First place: Class of 2024
- Second place: Fellowship of Christian Athletes
- Third place: Class of 2028
