As this year’s Homecoming festivities begin to gain traction, one fact has emerged for sure: the parade route. As Michigan’s biggest Homecoming parade, the route is essential to the overall success of our school’s most infamous activity. However, this year’s route has upset both staff and students in terms of the length and subsequent attendance by families of the area.

After last year’s premiere of the new, shorter route, many were upset. Students felt that the excitement of the event led to too little action during the parade itself. Because of this, the route is being lengthened slightly to make for a route which principal Steve Passinault feels is a good compromise between administration and student body.

“We are going to lengthen the parade route this year by moving the end of the parade to the Tennis court entrance area further down Hall Street,” Passinault said.

Besides this small change, the parade route is identical to 2014, beginning at Forest Hills Central Middle School. Floats then travel down Ada Drive until reaching Paradise Lake Drive, turning left to go through that neighborhood. It then takes another left onto Hall Street, where the parade will go until reaching the tennis courts of FHC and ending its route. This is slightly longer than the 2014 route which upset many people. However, many are still not satisfied and wish to go back to the traditional route through the Clements Mills neighborhood.

“I believe that this parade route decreases participation within the school and the community,” said Mackenzie Yob, treasurer of the senior class who also houses the senior class float during its construction. “We feel like the shorter distance doesn’t allow many people to see our hard work on the float.”

Echoing the thoughts of Yob, the primary argument of FHC students is that the Clements Mills route’s long distance allowed for the maximum amount of enjoyment from families and students.

One such group of students is the FHC Marching Band who, aside from some exceptions, believes as a whole that the Paradise Lake route is not the way to go.

“I just think that the Clements Mills route is better,” said Drum Major Ben Whitlow. “Although some band kids like that we aren’t dying at the end from so much walking, I think that overall we want to be able to see the community when we march.”

On the flip side, the township of Ada and some of the administration maintain that the safety of small children comes first, and the recent death of a child during a parade gives evidence that a shorter route is better.
As the administration has promised to reevaluate the route after the 2015 parade, we don’t know what the future is for the FHC Homecoming parade. But for now, the hope is that this year’s parade, despite its controversy, will go off without a hitch and allow many people to have fun.