On September 30, Lightridge High School became the first new Loudoun County school in 15 years to put together a parade as part of the school’s Homecoming Week.  Despite difficulties with planning and the weather literally raining on the parade, the Student Council Association (SCA) estimates that over 500 people attended the event.

Planning for the parade began months in advance and involved coordination not just with school groups, but with the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and local communities.

School administration was supportive of the idea, but problems sprang up concerning the parade route. Originally, SCA wanted to start the parade at the Willowsford Boat House  to avoid shutting down that section of Braddock Road, but according to Jennifer Schrader, Lightridge counselor and co-sponsor of the SCA, Willowsford management would allow only the band to start there. The rest of the parade had to start at Willard Middle School.

Both Student Council Association President, Adam Domanico, and Schrader, said that factions inside of  Willowsford management were very difficult to reach any sort of agreement with. Willowsford is a large planned community that neighbors the school and where a significant number of students live.

“They didn’t communicate with us on anything, and left their Home Owners Association out of it completely,” Schrader said when asked about the main issues. 

Domanico added, “This made things slow, made us put a lot on hold. However, it was better starting off at Willard… starting at the Willowsford Boat House would have been too short.” 

The parade entrants from Lightridge included floats from each class, the marching band, the cheerleaders, as well as representatives from most of the other fall sports teams. Participants weren’t limited to just Lightridge organizations. 

“The idea for the parade was to get the community involved,” said Domanico. “We want people to experience new things, get people more involved with what goes on here at Lightridge.” 

As part of this community outreach, the parade included the Light Family, who originally owned the land on which the school was built. Also participating were various youth sport groups, and select students from feeder schools. Originally, a fire truck from the Loudoun County Fire and Rescue was scheduled to take part, but had to be re-tasked after a band student at Lightridge had a cabinet fall on them. The fire truck stayed at the school to help the student and did not make it to the parade. 

Moments before the parade began, SCA discovered the freshman float was absent from the staging area. The vehicle that was supposed to transport the float was missing the hitch needed to bring the float to the school. The freshman float eventually made it to the parade. 

The rain also “totalled” the senior float, according to Domanico, causing the Pac-Man and Bart Simpson cutouts decorating the float to fall off. By the end of the parade, seniors were waving the Bart Simpson cutout around like a flag.

Despite the difficulties, attendance was higher than expected and overall participants and people along the route reported having a good time.

“For Lightridge’s first ever parade, I would call it a great success,” said Lightridge Principal, Dr. Ryan Hitchman. “I was very surprised with the turnout, considering the weather. I was grateful to the Sheriff’s Office and other organizations for helping us put this into effect.”

Domanico agreed, adding, “Nobody does it like Lightridge.”