One of the events that makes students look forward to school is Homecoming Week. Its fun school activities—like the parade, the dance, and nest fest—unify the student body. But what happens behind the scenes of the celebration? Who are the people involved in the planning process? And how do they work everyday to achieve the desired result?

Eaglecrest Student Leadership, comprised of 41 members of our student body, work together to deliver the school a series of events where the students can forget about their academic activities for a couple hours and let their school spirit loose.

Student Leadership divides itself into four different committees: Dance/Assembly, Parade/Nest Fest, Royalty/Football Game, and Marketing. Each committee is in charge of their designated event, but they constantly work with each other to set dates, times, and other activities that require the attention of more than one committee.

All Committees start the planning process during the previous school year. They discuss things like the theme and Spirit Week. As the new year begins, they start working prioritizing their tasks that need to be completed.

Parade and Nest Fest Committee

Floats, food, bouncy houses, and candy. Those things shape the Parade and Nest Fest. On Sept. 29 at 4:15 p.m. spectators get the opportunity to pick their favorite floats accompanied by friends and family and might even take a handful of candy home.

However, for freshman Rian Nelson and her committee, it is not like that. “[The planning process] takes awhile,” she said. “From the very beginning of the school year to the week of Homecoming we’re homecoming focused that’s pretty much what we do.”

The Parade and Nest Fest Committee are in charge of letting the clubs and sports teams know when and where the parade will be and when they should be there if they decide to participate. They let the people participating know the rules like how they are not supposed to throw candy to keep little kids safe from the floats.

For the parade they are responsible for obtaining judges to decide who wins best float of the parade. For this Nelson says that they try to think of teachers that have “a lot of school pride,” because although they are all full of school pride, some of them know how to represent the school spirit more boldly. The parade is also a community event; therefore, they are looking for people involved in the community like Thunder Ridge’s eighth grade health teacher Julie Cyrillic to also judge.

This committee is also responsible for letting the community know what will be happening that day. “We write this letter [to the community] saying that  the road is going to be closed,” Nelson said. This is to make sure kids at Timberline and Thunderidge can get out before the events starts and the community knows that they cannot drive on the road from 4:15 – 5:15 p.m.

They also organize the food that will be sold during Nest Fest and the activities during Nest Fest, including this year’s new (and bigger) bouncy house and an obstacle course.

The Marketing Committee

The Marketing Committee is a year long committee in charge of promoting and advertising different events throughout the school year. Senior Taylor O’brien, student Body President of Marketing said Homecoming is “a big push because it is at the beginning of the year and [they] are trying to get everyone excited for the school year.”

Their focus is to create each individual poster for each individual day of spirit week like Pajama Day, Tacky Tourist Day, Crazy Socks and Hats Day, etc. They also create posters for the different committees, but before this they have to meet with the other committees to discuss what they need and when they need it. That way they can organize their time to deliver each committee their material on time.

Marketing is currently working on a new way to target different forms of advertising by creating a video that will be put on Raptor TV during Homecoming week. Additionally, the committee also works with Lisa Kornblith who is in charge of running the Eaglecrest App. They give her what they think is important to spread the word, and that way the news can get to the ears of the Eaglecrest community.

Dance and Assembly Committee

Two different events combined in one committee. Although the planning process for the Homecoming Dance and the assembly are not as long as the other committees, it still carries out some of the most important components that make this Homecoming.

For the Homecoming Dance, this committee does all the fun stuff like doing some of the food preparation. “This year we’re making Dr. Seuss jello cups,” said junior Mckenzie Lewis. Not only that, they are also in charge of making the decoration decisions and they even get to make the table centerpieces to match the Dr. Seuss theme.

The fun doesn’t stop there; for the assembly this committee is in charge of choosing the games, so get ready, Raptors, for Friday’s sing off! Additionally, the Assembly Committee makes sure Royalty gets their prizes. Unlike previous year’s balloons and crowns, this year royalty winners have something else to look forward to. “We are doing little fish bowls with nerds for rocks and red and blue fish,” to go with the theme said Lewis.

Student Body Vice President senior Miranda Jenberg also announced that this year at the assembly they are adding a Boys Poms performance and a rap performance as well.

Royalty and Football Committee

There can’t be a Homecoming without a King or a Queen and the Royalty and Football Committee are credited for all the preparation. “It takes a lot of organization on their behalf. They deliver a lot of communication with these teenagers to make sure that they are where they need to be and the committee does a really good job with that,” Melissa Laferrara, advisor of the Student Council, said.

This committee starts by working with teachers setting up nominations on Naviance for royalty and advertising the nominations around the school. Once they get all nominations, if they are eligible, the committee sets up a meeting to go over expectations. Then the candidates are asked to show a leadership role and participate on all school events like the parade, Nest Fest, and sporting events.

On the day of the assembly just the Royalty Committee knows who the winner is and then they make sure that the people nominated get there at 7:35 a.m. to practice for the Pep Assembly to finally deliver the news to the school.

The Royalty and Football Committee is also accountable for decorating the football field for the big day. This year apart from balloons, they are also getting a photo booth that students and families can enjoy prior to the game.

During the game the committee makes sure the winners are there seven minutes before half time so they can finally be formally presented to the Eaglecrest community.

Together all four committees work hard to deliver the best Homecoming experience that will be remembered for many years to come.