Homecoming Parade gets ‘Super?-sized

Participants in this year’s Lake Orion High School Homecoming Parade are sure to get a ‘hero’s? welcome when they march through downtown Lake Orion on Oct. 6.
That’s because this year’s ‘Superheroes? theme is sure to please parade goers of all ages.
But the parade, scheduled for 4:30 p.m., or roughly two-and-a-half hours before the kickoff of the big game between the Dragons and Farmington Hills Harrison, is just one part of a big week at LOHS.
The school’s leadership class began planning the homecoming festivities at the end of the last school year.
The week begins with a Sunday night bonfire and movie (Batman Begins) near the baseball field on Oct. 1 (the movie will be shown in the auxiliary gym if the weather does not cooperate).
The annual Powder-Puff football game will kickoff at 7 p.m. on Monday night at Dragon Stadium, with the juniors battling the seniors for school supremacy. Admission for that event is $3 for adults and $2 for students.
In addition, each day throughout the week at LOHS has a special spirit week theme (including some days based on the superhero theme).
The homecoming dance will be held on Saturday night (from 7:30-10:30 p.m.) at the Fieldhouse.
And, of course, there will be float building all week long for the big parade.
Each class has a different superhero theme for their float. But to find out which class has The Hulk, Batman, Spiderman or Superman, you’ll have to see for yourself at the parade.
The parade begins at Blanche Sims Elementary, traveling down Washington to Flint, to Broadway, where it finishes just past Little Caesars.
It’s a new route for the parade, which will include some classic cars as well as many disguised elementary students from across the district.
‘All schools in Lake Orion have been invited to walk and participate in the parade,? said leadership class advisor Kevin Kopec. ‘A lot of kids are really into the theme this year.?
Kaitlin Denton and Rachel Traurig, two senior students in Kopec’s class, said students at the high school level are also responding well to the theme. T-shirt sales, which are up from a year ago, help to prove that point.
Denton and Traurig are two of 60 students in the class that have helped to put everything together.
For LOHS students, game day will also include a pep assembly near the end of school hours, and tailgating in the CERC parking lot behind the football field, beginning at 5 p.m.
Halftime festivities will include superhero music from the LOHS marching band, and the homecoming court, with the King and Queen for the 2006-07 year to be announced.
Of course, having a big game to cap off the week certainly can’t hurt, and Kopec noted that it ‘enhances? the value of the week.
To learn more about the parade, or other homecoming week festivities, call Lake Orion High School at 693-5420, between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., and ask for Rachel Traurig in the leadership class.