Clover Park School District’s (CPSD) Daffodil float was awarded the highest honor in the 2009 Grand Floral Parade—the Grand Sweepstakes award!
The theme of this year’s Daffodil Festival was “Swing into Spring.” CPSD’s brightly-colored float featured a baseball theme, complete with popcorn and Cracker Jacks. Titled “Swing for the Fence,” the float featured 4,000 fresh daffodils and eight fourth-graders from the Lakeview Hope Academy and Lake Louise Elementary School. Maili Dellinger, Lakes’ princess and Wendy Tuduran, Clover Park’s princess attended Lake Louise and Lakeview, respectively. The float was led by the Lakes High School Dance Team and marching band.
Terese High, secretary of the Community Relations Department, led the planning, creation and assembly of the float—a job she has tackled for the past seven years.
“I look forward to the Daffodil Parade every year and the district has been a part of the Festival for as long as I can remember,” said High. “I volunteer my time because I want to keep the tradition going for our students and our community.”
High first started working on the float when her daughter was a candidate for Daffodil princess in 2003. That year’s candidates and their parents were told that they would need to help with the production of the float in order to keep the district’s long-standing participation in the annual parade going strong. Daffodil Festival rules state that communities and/or school districts must enter a float in order for the high schools to have princesses in the festival.
Each year, the float is assembled in the district’s bus barn. It takes approximately three weeks to assemble, but production starts long before that. Several community members, district staff and students helped paint, papier-mâché and decorate the float.
The district is already looking ahead to 2010 and is in need of sponsors and volunteers to help keep the tradition alive. To help with next year’s float in any capacity, contact High at 583-5040.