Hempfield Area preps for homecoming festivities

Hempfield Area School District is getting ready for its upcoming homecoming game Friday by focusing on the district’s past and present.

This year’s homecoming parade has a theme of “Community.” Floats representing each of the schools in the district will participate in the parade.

Before the game, representatives from each school will assemble decorated signs shaped like puzzle pieces, bearing an image representing Hempfield Area School District as a whole.

“Homecoming should be a time to celebrate everything we are as a school and a district,” said Hempfield teacher Jim Steeley, a member of the homecoming organizing team.

After last year, when 40 years’ worth of homecoming queens were invited to return to Hempfield to celebrate the district’s 50th homecoming celebration, Steeley wanted to get “as many people involved as we can.”

“We had Tech Ed cut (the puzzle pieces) out, and the kids were painting them and decorating them. We sent them off to each building,” Steeley said. “We let every school decide, here’s your float, you decorate it, and the puzzle piece has to be on it … you choose representatives of who you want on that float. It doesn’t matter to us, it’s what you think best represents.”

After the parade, the puzzle piece will hang in the district’s school board meeting room, Steeley said.

“The idea also was to create something that would remain,” he said.

Project 18

One of the floats in the parade will celebrate the district’s Project 18 course, a state and local government class that originally was spearheaded by the state in response to 18-year-olds being given the right to vote. The course, taught by Hempfield Area teacher Ken Stough, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this school year. Alumni from the course’s first-ever class will attend the parade.

“The theme of Project 18’s float this year is ‘50 Years of Dedication and Harmony,’” said Nick Miller, Hempfield senior and Project 18 student. The float has a 1970s music theme, he said, to call back to the time that the class was originally founded.

Tyler Dulkis, a senior and Project 18 student, said the students have been meeting in activity period to discuss preparations for the parade.

Malea Nadeo, another senior Project 18 student, said the group reached out to alumni through social media.

“I think a big thing at Hempfield for the past few years especially has been talking to alumni, and learning about the school. I think it’s so interesting — I feel like so much has changed, but so much hasn’t changed, especially in this class,” she said. “I’ve heard (from) so many people who graduated from here who took Project 18 and they loved it.”

Safety reminders

A letter sent to parents by Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education Matthew Conner ahead of Friday’s homecoming game reminded families that elementary and middle school students are required to stick to certain areas of the stadium during home games. Students will receive color-coded wristbands based on whether they are in elementary, middle or high school.

Students in kindergarten through eighth grade must be accompanied by a parent, guardian or responsible adult to attend the game. Middle school students must stay in a designated seating area and elementary students must stay with their adults throughout the game.

Students will not be allowed to carry bags or other items into the stadium, Conner’s letter noted.

Loitering in the concession area or outside of the stadium is not allowed, and anyone caught loitering will be removed from the premises, the letter said. Parents or guardians will be called and asked to come pick up the child immediately. No spectators are permitted to loiter on the asphalt track during the game.