Homecoming, an ongoing tradition at Freedom, is coming up. With COVID-19, Committee member Dale Kline and the Homecoming Committee wanted to continue the tradition of homecoming while also keeping people who are involved safe.

“Instead of the parade through downtown Freedom, with many units, we will have a parade of the court through the three communities of the district,” Kline said. 

The parade will be held at 1 p.m., on Saturday Oct. 10. It will be following the same route as the 2020 graduation parade. By spreading out the parade, it will be more COVID-friendly because people watching can distance themselves from others. 

Following the parade, a ceremony will take place at 2:30 p.m. where the king and queen will be crowned by Baylee Stewart and Maxwell Ujhazy, who were Homecoming King and Queen from the 2019 festival last year. The females on the 2020 Homecoming Court consist of seniors Johnna Adams, Allyson Charlovich, Courtney Grunnagle, Madison Lewis, Lauren Lizzi, Karissa Mercier, Emily Ostrowski, Olivia Shaffer, Tara Speicher and Sarah Yeck. The males are seniors Cole Beck, Brett Boyd, Andrew Hodnick, David Martsolf, Zane Metzgar, Brandon Pratte, Trent Schultheis, Paul Thompson, Reiker Welling and Ethan Wolfe. This year’s Little Princess is Sophia Schultz and the Little Prince is Jasper Giammaria. In order to limit the number of people, only family members of the court will be attending the ceremony. After the ceremony there will be a football game at 6:30 p.m.

The traditional homecoming festivities this year will also be different because there will be no dance. The dance would have involved too many people in the same place with no room for social distancing. Although the homecoming dance is a beloved tradition, the Homecoming Committee decided it was worth giving up for the students’ safety. Another event that will not be occurring this year is the homecoming festival, again, in order to keep people safe. 

“While I will miss the annual Fall Homecoming Festival events on Saturday afternoon — although I don’t really mind not having to sit in the dunking booth, if I’m being completely honest! — I always look forward to the crowning of our King and Queen and the football game that follows. Those are the events that make homecoming the most special to me,” Dr. Fuller said.

Although things are changing, the celebration is still going to be memorable for the court, their family, peers and teachers. 

“I do think that Freedom is doing a good job of taking part in homecoming while also trying to keep people safe from COVID. Although we are not doing all the homecoming traditions, Freedom is still allowing a homecoming court and a few other activities,” senior Lauren Lizzi, one member of the homecoming court, said. 

With everything said, the committee has worked hard to make this year’s homecoming as special as possible for the court and their families. All of the Freedom community can enjoy this year’s homecoming parade and students can vote for their homecoming king and queen.