Local schools celebrate

Franklin Square and Elmont saw their fair share of parade floats and gleeful teenagers last weekend, as three separate homecomings turned the area into one long parade. H. Frank Carey, Sewanhaka and North high schools held their Homecoming festivities on Saturday, filling the local streets with marching bands and parade floats, not to mention the most all-American of royalty, the Homecoming courts.

Though adverse weather — in the form of a threatening nor'easter — made the parades a gamble, the clouds held fast. The only things dropping out of the sky in Franklin Square for much of the day were touchdown passes. “I'm just thrilled that the weather held out for us,” said Carey Principal Valerie Angelillo. “There wasn't one indicator all week long that we were going to be able to do this, and we got it in. It really was a tremendous turnout considering what the weather was supposed to be.”

In Franklin Square, Carey High made the weekend all about fun with a "Theme Parks" parade theme, with each float representing a park. The theme, Angelillo explained, will continue for the rest of the year, as the parade floats will be disassembled and used as decorations during school dances and festivals.

“We thought the day went really well,” Angelillo said. “Students have been working for endless weeks along with their advisors to put everything together, and when the floats came out they were sensational.”

For Angelillo, the event also represented a great opportunity for Carey to put its best foot forward in the community. "It's a tremendous community event — not only the school event for our children attending, but a way to involve the entire community," she said, adding that seeing graduates come back and interact with current students made the importance of the school to the village readily apparent. "For these students, it's almost a tradition that they don’t ever want to break. They really feel that Carey plays an incredible part in their lives, and for the alumni coming back it's a statement of how important they really think it is."