Here at Blue Valley, tradition is something we keep alive each and every year. From sending teams off to State, to the beginning of the school year picnics, to donuts, tradition is something that will never be left out. 

One annual event that everyone knows about is Homecoming — the time of year where events upon events are planned leading up to the big dance on Saturday night. 

One of these events is the parade, where the community gathers to watch decorated floats pass by, cheer and band perform, and what is going on at the high school. 

The route has consecutively been throughout the Green Meadows neighborhood, leading up to Stanley Elementary and eventually back to Blue Valley.  

Although this is something the Stanley elementary kids look forward to experiencing right in front of their school, Blue Valley decided to change the route of the parade to reach more Blue Valley schools in the area. 

This year, all floats, royalty nominees, band, cheer and dance members, lined the front of Sunrise Point Elementary school. 

Student body President, Surina Walia, described some obstacles faced while making this transition, “The most challenging part was working with the local police in order to get 159th Street closed since it is such a busy intersection”, Walia stated.  Although it was a struggle to organize this event, Walia said the intentions of this new route were exceedingly met, “We were able to have both SPE, BRE, and BVMS students watch our parade this year, in addition to Stanley, so I would say that was the most successful part of our parade”. 

Seventh-grader Lauren Browning from Blue Valley Middle School shared how this new parade route affected her and her classmates.

“I’m excited because we’ve never been able to do this before — this was the first year we were able to do this,” Browning said. 

While the decision on whether or not to continue the new route next year is undecided at this point, Walia said that the administration, as well as the elementary schools, want it to become a new school tradition.