Living in a college town, especially one that is home to a large university like MSU, can heavily impact the day-to-day lives of students, parents, and other citizens. With a broad campus and intense school spirit, MSU and ELHS are intertwined in all they do. On Oct. 18, ELHS’s last home football game and senior night as well as the MSU homecoming parade were celebrated. The MSU homecoming parade is one of many ways that ELHS is connected to the university. Many ELHS students make it a tradition to watch the parade each year.
“I love seeing the little kids excited and everything,” Kaila Cravotta (9), a clarinet player in the ELHS marching band said. “There’s a lot more people there than at ELHS’s homecoming, and it’s just a fun atmosphere.”
This year, several ELHS groups joined the festivities. Every year, the ELHS marching band plays alongside the MSU marching band. With no practice together beforehand, and with such different students, the unification can be strange for both schools’ marching bands.
“It’s a little hard because you have to make sure you stay in time with everyone, but it’s really fun,” Cravotta said.
Another group that participated in the parade was ELHS’s Key Club. The club helped decorate a float for the parade to raise awareness of their club and the Kiwanis service club.
“We kind of reestablished [Key Club]. We’re trying to get back into the Key Club and Kiwanis community,” Key Club Co-President Embeth Hall (12) said.
The club’s goal is to fund book vending machines for the elementary schools. These machines will encourage students to read by rewarding good behavior with “tokens” that can be used to get books from the machines. Hall believes the parade will promote this goal.
“Our float’s decorations were focused on the book vending machines that [Kiwanis service club] is currently helping to fund,” Hall said. “Our overarching goal this year is to improve literacy.”
MSU homecoming may close roads and make the streets busy, but the annual celebration is an important part of Michigan State’s and ELHS’s history and future.
“I think [the parade] really brings us closer together,” Max Craig (9), a member of Key Club, said. “It really gives us something that we can all connect over.”
