The Homecoming Parade will look a little different this year. The route that the floats travel on is shorter than before. Instead of going in a full circle around downtown, the parade route will be moving in an ‘L’ shape, which will make the parade more compact. The parade will begin at the corner of Rose and Cedar Ave. and will end at the corner of Grove and Broadway. The parade route is South on Cedar Avenue and East on Broadway. Hopefully this will give the parade-goers a chance to get a better look at the parade floats.

There is also a new policy stating: That all the supplies for floats need to be put on an open purchase order, which must be turned into the school ahead of time. Mrs. Justice the Homecoming coordinator said, “I have had to order a lot more supplies this year than years in the past.” This means that all of the float crews from varsity Soccer, to DECA have to turn in their requests ahead of time. This also allows for the floats to not try to “outdo” each other.

This new policy is helpful, but it is also a challenge at the same time. “You have 5 dollars to spend on this item, and if it doesn’t match up on the order form, then you can’t get it ,” said Mrs. Justice on how the crews can order items. This could be a problem though. Say float builders  run out of spray paint, the case used to be that you could go out and grab a can at Walmart, but now if it wasn’t planned  your budget can’t cover it. The budget is $250 for each of the 19 floats that will be displayed at the parade. The student council will be getting the basic necessities like templates, poster boards, and fringe for the floats.

The floats were built at the Radel Pavilion by the Village of Yesteryear on Wednesday, Sept. 27. The main concept of most of the floats are something to with  As Ryley Glynn, a senior captain for Owatonna Boy’s Soccer team said, “I usually help out on the float every year, if some people don’t come to our games, they get to see us on our float, and if it looks good, they might come and support.” This just shows how much commitment students goes into the float building process. We hope to see everyone at the parade on Friday, Sept. 29 at 1:30 p.m.