People lining the streets, music thundering, astounding floats coming down one by one, and most of all, school spirit filling the air. This is the atmosphere of Concord High School’s yearly homecoming parade.
Concord’s homecoming parade focuses on many different clubs or classes building creative floats to individually represent them. A few groups who participated were all the class representatives for the homecoming court, the American Legion, the women’s auxiliary, the band, all of the varsity sports teams, and alumni from the class of 1984.
It is also a tradition for each graduating class to build a float related to the given homecoming theme. The seniors came in last place, the sophomores came in third, the juniors came in second, and the freshman came in first place with an eccentric Halloween-themed float. Building all these floats takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and willingness from the groups.
One student who helped a lot in building one of the floats was junior Connor Stevens. When Stevens was asked about his overall experience in helping to build his float, he stated, “My favorite part is definitely just the bonding part of it, just getting the opportunity to hang out with friends outside of school, while also working hard in an extracurricular activity.” Stevens also shares that his least favorite part is the lack of participation: “If we want to do this, we have to have as much participation as possible, but when people are not participating, it is really hard to do.”
One of the major parts of the parade is Concord’s astounding band marching in front of the pack, setting the tone and uplifting the overall mood of the parade. Senior Jayden Carpenter-Sattler has been marching in the homecoming parade for the past four years. When asked how he thinks the music he plays affects the overall atmosphere of the parade, he responded, “Without our music, it would just be a lot of people quietly walking in a straight line. I think having live music really ties the whole event together.”
None of this would be possible without the meticulous planning of our school’s amazing student council. Mrs. Osterhout is the long-time leader of our student council and does most of the work to set up and plan the parade for weeks. The challenges she endures go all the way from up to setting up the parade to managing it the day of. When asked about these challenges, Mrs. Osterhout communicates how to balance the responsibility. She states, “Since it is just me, it is hard to go back and forth through the tight lineup to get everyone in the right spots.”
Every year, Concord never fails to put together an extravagant parade filled with fun times and school spirit; this year was no exception. Next year, students should strive to participate even more to make next year’s parade even better than this year’s!
Ebony • Oct 7, 2024 at 3:22 pm
Great article! Great job on the pictures as well!