Every year at the CHS homecoming pep rally, students gather to watch the parade of fantastic floats. But few students know of the hard work that really went on behind the scenes to create the final products.

It took nearly a month of brainstorming ideas and staying after school for hours on end, but the CHS SGA has created some spectacular, super hero-themed floats that will ride down the bus loop at the annual homecoming pep rally.

According to Class of 2019 Vice President Bradley Furgeson, the freshmen started executive board meetings on September 25th, and were meeting almost every day during lunch and after school until 5:15 pm. Since elections for their SGA were so late, they were short on time to come up with an idea and start building.

“Our amazing class sponsor, Mrs. Perrett, brainstormed a general idea for the float and we built off that,” freshman executive board member Jenna Greenzaid said.

According to Greenzaid, the freshman class superhero is Superman. Their goal was to create a “creative, yet simple” float since it is their first year building one. They wrapped all different sized boxes to create buildings because supposedly, superman’s “territory” was the city. After stacking them on one another, they made small windows on the front with yellow paper, and incorporated a red telephone booth because Superman changes in the phone booth. In addition, they added some comic book words such as “pow” and “bam” scattered around the float.

“The main difficulty in making the float was trying to picture it and make that picture come alive,” Greenzaid said. “We changed the idea and messed around with it a few times until we came up with something that we are proud of.”

According to Furgeson, they are also planning on having their “very own” freshman Andrew Ha stand on their float as Superman.

“I hope that students see we put a lot of time and effort into what we made,” Greenzaid said. “It was a hard task, but I want the class of 2019 to be excited about working together to achieve something so big.”

According to Class of 2018 executive board member Sofia Camp, meetings to work on floats and murals began around mid-September. They were meeting two or three times a week at first, but as homecoming drew nearer, they were meeting every day after school and sometimes during lunch.

“We began to brainstorm floats early, around the first or second week of school,” Camp said. “We had a big brainstorming session where everyone gave their ideas, and we finally decided on a rough idea of what we wanted.”

Also according to Camp, the float has a city backdrop including 5 buildings: the Empire State Building, a building with graffiti on it, an office building, and two apartment buildings, which are covered in spider webs. It was built at sophomore Maddy Russo’s house, and like last year’s it will act as a stage for the skit.  However, the wood was difficult to transport, and they had a lack of paintbrushes which complicated the process. Unlike last year’s paper float, this one was made from cut wood.

“I think the whole essence of the float is the skit, but the float itself is also really cool,” Camp said. “Students will like it much more when it’s used for the skit.”

According to Class of 2017 President Max Smith, the junior executive board began brainstorming for their float at the very beginning of the school year. They stayed after school every day in the final week, until 5 pm and sometimes even until 8:30 pm.

“We decided our float idea based off class input from our Facebook group, and from meetings with the other class officers,” Smith said.

Also according to Smith, the junior class’ class superhero is Captain America. They created a 17 foot by 16 foot frame and their background is a giant american flag made of paper, with “propaganda posters” on the front and a Captain America stand-up cutout. The building took place at Smith’s house, and a class dad who works in construction assisted with the woodwork. It is much different this year, being more 3-dimensional and using a larger variety of materials.

“I expect students to be very happy about our progress from last year, and excited to make it even better next year,” Smith said.

According to Class of 2016 Treasurer Jessica Ding, the seniors began brainstorming floats over the summer. They began building their float three weeks into the school year, and when homecoming week came around they were meeting every day for two hours after school.

“The Class of 2016 officers came up with the idea,” Ding said. “The float has a very holistic view regarding the entire Batman story.”

Also according to Ding, the senior class’ superhero is batman. They made the float look like Gotham City, with skyscrapers. It was built at both seniors Nicole Menkart and Nina Kothari’s houses, and they experienced some difficulty transporting the structure from the houses to school. The most difficult part proved to be the wood structure.

“It incorporates the characters of Batman, and is very dark and mysterious,” Ding said.