Out-of-Door Academy celebrates with school's first homecoming parade

By Liz Ramos
| 3:00 p.m. September 30, 2023

Sixth grader Ethan Burnstein loves how colorful the sixth grade peace themed golf cart is for the homecoming parade.

East County
Schools

Out-of-Door Academy eighth graders Sofie Roelens and Ellie Bysura sat in a decorated golf cart admiring their work.

They decorated the cart in a tiki theme for ODA's first homecoming parade Sept. 29.

They painted cardboard in alternating stripes of dark brown and light brown to look like bamboo. Roelens and Bysura, along with other eighth graders, added flowers and tiki torches to add to the theme.

"I hope people like it because we worked hard on it," Roelens said.

Brooke Allen-Burnstein, the associate director of development, is in charge of all special events at the school. She decided to add a parade to the homecoming festivities.

"Where I grew up, the parade is kind of your signature or marquee event of homecoming," Allen-Burnstein said. "ODA hasn't had one for football homecoming ever.'"

The parade will include 10 decorated golf carts. There is a golf cart for the lower school, alumni, the homecoming court and each of the middle school grades. At the high school, students are divided into a house system and each of the four houses has a golf cart for the parade.

"i'm excited to showcase the kids' creative juices," Allen-Burnstein said.

Senior Ryan Mohrmann and junior Kristina Spilka add fringe to the front of their golf cart.

Freshmen Charlotte Unde, Logan Kwon and Filip Spilka and seniors Emilie McKenna, Abbey Burwood and Axl Aparicio are ready to represent their house at the school's first homecoming parade.

Eighth graders Sofie Roelens and Ellie Bysura decorate their golf cart with a tiki theme. "I hope people like it because we worked hard on it," Roelens says.

Seniors Ariel Conway and Charlie Hugill work together to decorate the golf cart for Cypress house.

Seniors Ava Banks and Devon Van Hoesen continue to add decorations to their golf cart.

Freshman Amaya Cadena colors an anchor to add to the Sabal house golf cart. Out-of-Door Academy's high school students have been divided into four houses, and each house has a golf cart to decorate for the parade.

Seventh grader Grant Campbell says it's fun to decorate the golf cart and represent his grade.

The golf carts almost are ready to make their debut in Out-of-Door Academy's first homecoming parade.

Fifth grader Maeve McAloon puts on the fringe that represents the Thunder Hut on the Siesta Key campus. The Thunder Hut is where students eat lunch.

Fifth grader Laney Hildoer finds a spot for a monkey on the golf cart.

Fifth grader Gabriel Arsenault looks for the perfect place to put an inflatable palm tree on the lower school's history of Out-of-Door Academy's Siesta Key campus themed golf cart.

author

Liz Ramos

Managing Editor Liz Ramos previously covered education and community for the East County Observer. Before moving to Florida, Liz was an education reporter for the Lynchburg News & Advance in Virginia for two years after graduating from the Missouri School of Journalism.