June 22, 2008 - Prescott Valley Days Parade
Shinpu-ren students decided to really go all out on this years Happy 30th Birthday Prescott Valley Day’s Parade. The students started the work on the 2008 Prescott Valley Days Parade float 6 weeks ahead of the deadline. Numerous hours were spent wrapping boxes, twisting thousands of little tissue paper flowers, painting and gilding the fantastic 16-foot tall birthday cake float.
The many students and a handful of moms painstakingly tended to every detail, from the hand painted plates and cups to the individually hand painted slices of cake. Student’s hand wrapped bottle caps into pieces of foil for candies and made tissue paper flowers by the dozens. There was even a hand made piņata of the letters P.V. hanging in the front of the float. The last count on glue sticks used for the project was 160 extra long sticks. As the float rolled out the doors of the dojo Sensei Alex and Marranda Walker put on their clown suits and their 3ft. stilts to walk the parade route.
Many students were dressed up as presents and three more as clowns to hand out candy. Some of the bigger students formed a drill line to perform kicking drills along the parade route. All of their hard work paid off on the day of the parade though when the students and school came away with the FIRST place prize for the youth division.
This was a really fun and successful project for the students and the school. The best part though was when they got to tear it down a few days later. Ribbons and tissue paper were flying everywhere, and in a matter of 30 minutes it was gone.