Community Spirit Building for Homecoming
Submitted by the Henry Ford II H.S. Student Council, 586.797.1780
We contact all of the Elementaries and middle school whose students will eventually attend our H.S. They all have their own Student Councils. We then set up a time for 6-8 members of our council to meet with their entire council. Generally this is between 2:30-4 p.m. since we end at 2:15 and the latest elementary is 4 pm. Our council members then (1) invite them to walk in our Homecoming parade and then (2) Immediately help them construct a banner to carry in our parade. We bring the roll paper, paint or markers, and other items to glue or stick on the banner. We sometimes construct several banners if their council is large. We brainstorm with them as to what should be put on the banner. Their school name, words of spirit and encouragement, pictures etc... The entire banner is constructed in that hour. Then,(3) we distribute spirit shakers to each student, practice briefly what they shout out as they walk in the parade. Finally we remind them about the time and place to meet to begin the parade. These younger kids absolutely loved walking in the parade, participating in two activities with High School kids both making the banners to carry and actually walking in the parade. Generally the Student Council advisor from that school walks with their kids. Many of these elementary and middle school kids will ultimately end up in a few years on our H.S. council so this also acts are a connection to our own future. We have doubled the size of our parade with the participation of these younger students. Most of them wear shirts from their school or borrow older kids jerseys from our H.S. . Overall it is a very positive happening. Simple, Cheap, fairly trouble free for the schools we visit. Very little actual school is ever missed. Generally we are able to schedule the visitations when that school has its own Student Council hour or time.

Haunted Homecoming
The activity/project that Stevenson used was the theme for our Homecoming, which was "Haunted Homecoming." This year's homecoming was on Oct. 26- one of the latest in the state. Unfortunately our school wouldn't allow us to have a "Costume Day" spirit day, but we used our theme for our "Fun Run" and our dance.

For the fun run, members of every class gather around our sports area- the tennis courts, track, football field-- our Senate (all-school representatives) creates a course for students to run and along the course they collect different prizes when reaching certain stations. This year we had people popping out from everywhere with costumes on trying to scare the runners. The Senators in costume would throw candy to the runners, making it like a "trick-or-treat" type run.
For the dance, we purchased things from catalogues such as Anderson's and Stumps such as a Haunted House, Haunted Gates, a "ghoulish ghost"-- these catalogues gave us a TON of ideas to go by and lots of things to order. At the main ends of the gym, where the DJ was, we had the haunted house with pumpkins, cobwebs, and strobe lights surrounding it. We also had a cemetery scene on the other side lit with green lights and spread over with black gossamer. We constructed a lot of gates and painted them. We bought black paper and lined the gym walls with it and hung purple lights everywhere to give a "night-like" affect. It turned out really well and we got a lot of complements from the staff and students!

Drawbacks include using the kits ordered from companies. Our haunted house was sent with very weak support so we had to use wood supports, which we bought with our own money, and put it together. It fell apart at least three times! The gates were also flimsy but stayed together throughout the dance surprisingly. Most of the things in the catalogues we could have made on our own and we did use a lot of ideas from the catalogue.