Homecoming

Yes, a good portion of my time is already completely consumed by an event taking place September 16th.  The 9/16 date is part of the reason it has already taken over my life.  It's 15 days earlier than Homecoming was this year (in case you are wondering why it matters-I sponsor student council and am therefore the Homecoming event chair).  I'm already collecting duchess names, sending out requests to the city manager for use of downtown for the parade and pep rally, planning decorations for the game, meeting dates, voting dates, t-shirt designs, fundraiser ideas, etc.  I never realized how much goes into putting on a homecoming parade, homecoming pre-game activities, homecoming week activities, homecoming t-shirt sales, and homecoming dance.  The t-shirts alone are enough to push anyone over the edge.  Ordering and organizing 250-300 t-shirts (hopefully this year that number will increase significantly b/c we will be savvy advertisers this year) by campus, homeroom teacher, and student is actually really difficult and time-consuming (last year we spent 7 hours organzing shirts and it took me 4 conference periods to get them distributed).  I've already made campus specific order forms-one for the high school and one for all other campuses with each campus color coded (ie: yellow=Heights, green=Chandler, etc.).  I can't play the guessing and hunting game I did last year when people wouldn't include their campus name....I just don't have time.  I'm taking my kids to StuCo camp this summer (ohhhhh my), so hopefully we can knock out a lot of ideas for the week's activities there.  Some of the most minor details I don't think anything of are a big deal to the kids, so they have to be a big deal to me.  The next time you mock a school's homecoming events, stop and think about all the work that went into making that parade happen, getting individual shirts delivered, making sure each duchess/princess knows where to walk onto the field, stand on the field, and exit the field, making sure each princess knows where to go and what to do if they win, ordering and setting up decorations, organizing the voting for princesses and queen (that's the real kicker), contacting the paper about events, contacting the previous queen, and the list goes on.  I think I will have a great group of kids on student council this year, so everything will go wonderfully!  Oh, and don't forget to buy your homecoming t-shirts...that's where the scholarship money for seniors comes from. =)