Homecoming: games, dances, floats and royalty. It's a time to cut loose. A time to be crazy. A time to have fun.
"I like homecoming," said senior Aubri Adkins. "I like dressing up and acting crazy. There is more spirit during this time than any time else during the year."
Spirit for sure, but there's stress as well. Homecoming is also a lot of work.
In the midst of pep rallies and bonfires, it's easy to forget the huge amount of preparation and time an event such as homecoming takes to coordinate. Unfortunately, it seems the effort usually falls to a select group of students - primarily student council.
Arranging spirit days and the assembly, preparing for the homecoming Olympics and the bonfire, organizing the royalty, the parade and the dance all are responsibilities of student council. Said student body president senior Eddy Abel: "My life pretty much comes to a hold for a week."
"Last year I stayed up until four in the morning (working on the junior float)," agreed student body secretary Heidi Broadbent. "But this year that's not going to happen again because we're more prepared."
There are many elements of making a float that must be done before the actual construction, such as:
"Getting the actual flat bed truck, finding supplies for decoration, getting people together to put up the decorations and finding a place to decorate," explained sophomore class president Nancy Natividad.
However, there are other groups involved in spirit week as well and each club can participate by preparing a float for the homecoming parade.
"I am amazed at where some of the leadership comes from," said Abel, "both within and outside of student council."
Art club took the effort to make a float because "it's a good way to start off the year and gets everyone to work together," said art club president senior Trina Zahller.
"I helped (on the senior float) for almost four hours," said senior Stacey Neils. "It was a lot more work than I thought it would be, and we didn't even finish."
"I spent four hours stuffing paper into chicken wire (on the senior float)," agreed senior Sarah Welling. "But it was really fun because it was just a bunch of friends getting together."
In an effort to get more of the student body involved, one of the biggest changes student council has made is to alter the format of the traditional royalty assembly.
"In the past few years, it's been a royalty assembly," explained Broadbent. "But we felt it was in the best interest of the student body to change it to a pep assembly. Friday is for everyone."
Although those who contribute admit that putting on a good homecoming week takes tremendous effort, most agree that the outcome is worth it.
"(Homecoming) is great because it really brings out our school spirit," said Broadbent. "It offers
a time for everyone to have fun and get involved."