Parade took lot of work
To the editor,
This year’s Anna-Jonesboro Community High School parade took a lot of work. Students and teachers worked very hard in preparation for this event. Every year, funding gets smaller and smaller, making it more difficult for us to put on a “Class A” performance.
We strive to make homecoming a very fun week at A-J. The more specific the homecoming theme is, the less room there is for imagination and personal takes on the theme. We only have four days to put floats together.
Local businesses are invited to participate in the parade, but we don’t ask them to sponsor one of the class floats to provide us with extra money because they generally support us in everything else.
Our class deans aren’t technically allowed to help us with our floats because it’s part of our class competitions. We are only students not professionals and we put as much time into our floats as our schedule allows. Many of the students have jobs, homework, officer positions, sports, etc. and aren’t able to put countless hours into building a float.
Another factor that must weigh in is that each class is only allowed to spend $100 per float. Because of the economy, businesses aren’t able to support us on everything, so our thought is let’s wait to ask them for their help when we really need them. Because we are working on our class floats in competition, we don’t wish for others to see our ideas because they could build off of them; so we work on them at separate locations. Academics come first; we can’t just take time out of class to work on them.
The bands work hard on preparing their songs for competitions and they come to a parade with the attitude of excitement. They are there to compete for the winning title. They also work hard at camp preparing their field show and making them as precise as possible.
Next year, we are going to try and work on the spacing of the parade, but we can only do so much because the bands and floats must stop to be judged. The homecoming candidates must stop while their biographies are being read, so this too will cause some gaps.
The city officials did a wonderful job, as they always do on helping with the traffic flow and keeping the roads blocked when needed. Just like the school board, city officials have bigger problems to worry about than riding in the parade. Parades are mainly for the kids. They are the ones who enjoy riding with their team on a float or simply catching candy on the side of the road.
In addition to all of this, there is a ton of behind the scenes work that goes into making an event like this happen. Many students give up their study halls to make phone calls, organize the schedule of the parade, and then the actual day of, get everyone in order. This may not sound like much, but it takes weeks to do. If anyone would ever wish to help, we will never turn you away.
Student council owes Ms. Lewis, Moury Bass and all of the faculty and staff at A-JCHS a big “Thank You” for helping to get things done and make “Spirit Week” such a big success. At the end of the day on homecoming Friday, we know that everyone goes to bed thinking about the past week, the times we have shared, and the wonderful memories that have been made along the way.
Signed, Lauren Capel, Lindsey Carter, Mahala Prater, Jeni Keller, Sam Coleman, Mackenzie Housman, Katelyn Brush, Lindsey Patterson, Katie Mosby, Lauren Goins, A-JCHS Student Council members