Kearsley’s Parades Over The Years

The+beginning

The beginning

Over the years the Kearsley parade has gotten bigger and better, the parade floats went from the basic paper flowers to big paper sculptures.

The parade float in 1966 consisted of a little convertible car with paper flowers lining it. In the car sat that year’s homecoming queen, Sharon Johnson.

The next years float, 1967, was the varsity club officers riding in a car that was covered in paper flowers.

These floats were definitely a lot smaller than the floats we have now.

The parade floats in the 2000’s got a lot more creative, in 2008 the parade float was made out of mainly paper mache. This float was made to look like a Hornet was riding an elephant that was stomping on the Davison Cardinal.

In 2015 the floats for the parade got even bigger, the floats were made out of objects like light up lettering, wood, fabric, paper, and a lot more. The float had a Kearsley Hornet watching the Homecoming game at a drive-in, on the screen it had the scores and the hornets were winning.

A couple years later, in 2018, the Kearsley Hornets made a Thor inspired parade float with a hornet holding Thor’s hammer smashing the other team’s mascot. When asked why she likes being a part of the Kearsley parade; Kearsley alumni, Cathlyn Healy, mentioned that it helps her connect back to her old community.

“As a Kearsley alumni it helps me come back to my community and see all the faces that I love,” Healy Stated.

This year’s parade was very spectacular, everyone in the parade was thrilled to be there even though it was very cold. The parade floats for this year were based on the theme of the renaissance festival.

The freshmen were jesters and their float was a Kearsley Hornet holding a Ferris Wheel that was moving around in circles. They also had two wooden jester heads that were painted with lots of color and goal post.

The sophomores were witches and wizards, in their float they had the Kearsley Hornet mascot wearing a wizard costume. The float also had a cauldron with lots of smoke coming out of it, in the cauldron sat a Bronco head which was the opposing teams mascot.

The juniors were mythical creatures, their float was the winner of the float contest this year.

The float had a castle with a dragon wrapped around it, it also had a mushroom forest and lots of flowers.

The seniors were royalty, their float had a big castle with a draw bridge that was crushing a Holly Bronco. They also had a hornet head on their castle and light up numbers that said 2023.

Some sports that were in the parade were Kearsley Volleyball, Kearsley Basketball, Cross Country, Swim, Kearlseys dance team, cheer team, Football, and more!

There were also groups in the parade like Bike Tech, Band, Choir, and many more.

Jane Turton and Kari Shaw also made an appearance as this year’s grand marshals. When asked about her reaction to finding out she was going to be grand marshal, Kari Shaw explained that she felt honored.

“I was really really honored, I’ve spent a lot of time here at Kearsley and it was a huge honor to get recognized like that, it met a lot. I was also really excited because Ms.Turton is an amazing person and a good friend of mine and it was really really great to be able to do that with her,” Shaw exclaimed.

Overall Kearsley is a very close community and is filled with pride.

Everyone could say the Kearsley Hornet Parade of 2022 was a success!