New Coronado student president to help lead more community-oriented Homecoming Parade this fall

New Coronado student president to help lead more community-oriented Homecoming Parade this fall

T.J. Archdale (left), who was Coronado High's student president this school year, will be replaced in 2015-16 by Daniel Wandeler.

Westside Pioneer photo

       The annual Homecoming Parade through Old Colorado City has been an enthusiastic Coronado High tradition since 1981, and incoming Student President Daniel Wandeler hopes the Westside community can be a bigger part of it this fall.
       “I want to promote Homecoming a little more,” he said in a recent interview. “We'd like to get more people out.”
       This quest will be enhanced by functional changes in the next parade event, Saturday, Sept. 19.
       For one thing, it will start down the avenue at 10 a.m. - an hour later than in past years - so as to be under way after shops open and to likely attract more viewers. Also, instead of leaving Bancroft Park after a parade-climaxing pep rally, as before, students will remain until 1 p.m., coordinating a pep rally, “celebration bash” and barbecue, on top of the traditional morning Save the Parade Pancake Breakfast fundraiser, according to Dianna Fitzsimmons, the student government advisor.
       Also being considered for Sept. 19 are a DJ, car show, games, family activities and even coordination with the summer-Saturdays Farmers Market, which normally has to give up the park on the Saturday of the Homecoming Parade. Details are still being ironed out, Fitzsimmons said.
       The parade can start later and be a longer-lasting event because of another change in Coronado's Homecoming activities this year: The parade will no longer be

Coronado High cheerleaders are joined by younger counterparts as the 2014 Homecoming Parade moves through the 2700 block en route to Bancroft Park last September.

Westside Pioneer file photo

on the morning of the Homecoming football game; it will be the day afterward, she explained.
       Featuring bands, floats and hundreds of participants from Coronado clubs and sports as well as its feeder schools, the parade from the 2900 block of West Colorado Avenue to Bancroft Park is Coronado students' biggest Westside event every year outside of their campus. The student president is actively involved in the planning and fundraising, with the parade requiring about $4,000 to put on.
       Wandeler is transitioning into the office with the help of outgoing President T.J. Archdale, who will graduate this month.
       Student presidents at Coronado are elected by students in the previous spring and serve for the entire school year, with the help of an elected cabinet. Archdale has been president in 2014-2015. Wandeler will serve in 2015-16,
       After graduation, Archdale plans to attend CSU, with an ultimate goal of becoming an optometrist, like his father. He said he enjoyed his term in office, including Homecoming, a $2,000 parade fundraiser with the Westside Chick-Fil-A and a student-government-led DriveSmart educational event.
       Wandeler, who also plays basketball and soccer and is eyeing an engineering career, had not been in student government previously, but decided to get involved because he thinks he can contribute a “strong voice to get things done.” In addition to the Homecoming changes, he said he hopes to build school spirit. “I'd like to promote school as a fun place to be,” he said.

Westside Pioneer article
(Posted 5/3/15; Schools: Coronado High School)

Would you like to respond to this article? The Westside Pioneer welcomes letters at editor@westsidepioneer.com. (Click here for letter-writing criteria.)