By: Gabriela Mora
Every year, Homecoming week is filled with tons of activities, and at the end of the week to tie everything together, the Homecoming parade. In this parade, clubs and the top 5 nominees parade around the school while judges are voting to see who will win a certain category. All this planning starts about 2 weeks in advance, starting with who would be walking in the parade. This year about 42 clubs and teams participated in the parade.
A couple of days before the parade, those who will be in charge of the building and organizing start to plan out what will be happening that day. Freshman president, Alyssa Sozinho ‘23, says that she began her planning by discussing her plan with Freshman Vice President, Jackson Marquez ‘23. Sozinho said that once they had their plan for the float, they made a group chat with people that they knew would want to help out with posters. When everyone had agreed to the design, they began to sketch it out and plan on what supplies they would need to complete their design. They decided to go with the theme of Blues Clues. “It’s definitely for fun. We are all here to have the full experience of our first homecoming,” says Sozinho. This group decked out a blue golf cart that they were able to make look like the famous dog from the show “Blues Clues”. Along with everyone else dressed like dogs, Marques ‘23 came dressed as Steve.
Then the biggest competitors of them all, the senior class float. This float preparation was ran by Skylar Ford ‘20, Senior class president. They went with the theme of “Spongebob Squarepants.” Cruising down the street in Bikini Bottom style, they used things that they have had from previous years and new things that they had brought in. They did have a goal of winning, the goal that they have had every year since freshman year. Mr. Blair, one of the advisers, also helped the seniors prepare for this day by getting them the gator that they would be driving during the parade. Ford ‘20 said, “We have won freshman and sophomore year, and we won another award our junior year. Since this is our senior year, we are here to win, but we still want to have fun.”
Michael Anne de Campos, ‘21, led the way for the Social Impact Club. For their preparation, they went and bought all the materials they needed, they found a golf cart that they could use, and they decided that they would use the Blue’s Clues theme. Just like most of the other clubs, they went just for fun and just to be involved in all the homecoming traditions.
Along with the Social Impact club, Orchestra also had some ideas. They all prepared for this by planning to have a Nickelodeon Teen Choice Awards by even making a trophy.
Ski Club also had some good ideas as to what they had in mind for their float. Nolan Pritchett, ‘21, club President said, “Along with Ashley Todd and Reid Terry, we were able to come up with the idea because team work makes the dream work.” They said that they grew up watching lots of Nickelodeon together and they just had lots to brainstorm and reminisce on their childhood together. Reid Terry, ‘21, said that they were there for the competitive side of it and for the fun of it. They said that if they won that would be great but if they didn’t it was all for the fun of it.
About 30 minutes before the parade started, groups started getting the final touches on their floats and plan how they would be walking or riding. A couple of minutes before the groups began to line up, everyone was gathered up, and they did a Ranger Cheer to bring the hype to the parade. During these times, our office secretaries, Mrs. Mejia, Mrs. Gonzalez, Mrs. Casillas, and Mrs. Gonzalez, got ready to judge the floats and make the decisions to who would get most spirited, most decorative, most creative, and the best nickelodeon theme.
Then came the time to start the parade, the MC, Savannah Travis ‘20, was announcing who was walking down the street and getting everyone to cheer everyone else on. The band began playing some songs that are well known around the school.
Following them was the Interact Club, Leadership, Ablaze , Ranger Cheer, Ranger Choir, Rally Club, and Paws for a Cause. All of these clubs had Nickelodeon themes such as, Lazy Town, Ninja Turtles, and Spongebob.
Following these we saw, Our Senior Class followed by the Freshmen Class, Ski Club, R.A.D ( Redwood Arts and Digital ), Orchestra, Spy club. The Spy Club got the excitement going with their was a fight scene going on while they were showing their club. We saw some “fairly odd” dancing from our dance force who choose to go with the theme of Fairly Odd Parents.
Following Dance Force, we saw Link Crew, Social Impact, Junior Class, Red Ink Club, Green Club, Republican Club, Key Club, FBLA, Redwood Mock Trial, French Club, Feminist Perspective, Coloring Club, ASL, CIA, Ranger T.V, Unity House, AVID, Hip Hop, Black Student Union , Gigantea, Drama Club, and to end off the clubs, the FFA. all of these clubs had different themes and posters that showed off what their clubs where about.
Then the time that everyone had been waiting for, the top five homecoming nominees and their escorts in their fancy dresses in a old fashioned car waving to crowds and students to end the parade.
Here are the results by the judges: For Most Spirited, Spy Club took the win. For Most Decorative, Drama Club. Most Creative was won by Junior Class with their theme of Fairly Odd Parents. Then for the Best Nickelodeon Theme, the Freshmen Class took the win. The judges also found some honorable mentions that they wanted to show, AVID, FFA, and the MC, Savannah Travis.
