Homecoming Dance

Some of the guys at the dance.
Remember! Click on Photos to Enlarge

The kids got home between 11:00pm and midnight. Sounds like they had a good time. I loved that Hamidou Haidara of Mali wore a traditional African suit to the dance. What a fun lesson to his friends and classmates at Mountain Valley HS.

Pre-Dance Party at Abbey's

Our exchange student coordinator, Abbey Rice, hosted a gathering of many of the students in her beautiful home. Guido went; Sebino had another invitation from a football friend. Gotta love these happy photos.

Pre-dance Hike

Hiking the Cross-Country Ski Trail at Black Mountain

Once clothes were selected for the dance, the boys joined me for a quick, 4-kilometer hike around the cross-country ski course at Black Mountain. Interestingly, the Black Mountain cross-country ski course has hosted national, regional, and state championships. In 1950, the town hosted the World Cup of Cross-Country ski racing! A few years back, I wrote a small history book for the ski area titled Words for a Mountain as a way to raise money. These two photos are samples from the book. Finally, I coached at Black Mountain for 21 years and also served as the state ski coach for a long time.

Big brother Allen Kent
c. 1957

Swedish Winner of the 1950 World Cup
Race in Rumford, Maine

 

The boys tossed an American football while hiking. 

Bailey asks, "What in the world are they doing?"

Signage from the trails. They must be going to redo the signs. 

Homecoming Football Game

I borrowed this photo from Abbey Rice, the exchange student coordinator. Here with Guido are several of the other "Foreigns" from Mali, Poland, Italy, Japan... and Spain. If I find other pictures from the game, I'll post them later on.    

Foreigns at the Football Game

Homecoming Parade

Part of Sebino's Junior Class Float focused on Harry Potter.
I thought the juniors had the best float and costumes.
What say you, Connie? :-) 

The parade starts at 5:00pm and goes through one of the main streets of the town of Rumford. The football game starts at 7pm. Each of the four classes in the high school (i.e., freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors) builds a float based on a theme. This year's theme was movies. Our own Aunt Connie served as a judge for the parade. Sebino spent countless hours building the juniors' float with his pal, Anthony, and other classmates. A little side note: the football team won their first game of the year thanks to Anthony's play... if you know football, he made two interceptions in the final minutes to secure the win for Mountain Valley High School.

Star Wars

Middle School soccer players

Music department rocking

Showing off the town trucks! :-) 

Middle school soccer players

Sebino's class

Homecoming Rally

Spot the Dutch Boy

This Homecoming tradition at American high schools is nationwide. Maybe you've seen movies about the big football game and the Homecoming dance. This week is about "school spirit" and coming together as a community. All the sports teams have games topped off by a rally at the school, a parade, and a dance.

Thanks to Connie for capturing photos at the school rally. The four classes compete in various competitions in an effort to collect points for an overall "spirit trophy." It's just a fun afternoon, and you'll see that both Sebino and Guido got into it--especially the face painting and games.

After the rally.
As always, click on photos to enlarge. 

Tug of War... Guido back right. 

No idea what this game is... Sebino in the middle, face painted. 

Sebino during rally. 

Tug of War... Guido's in there somewhere! 

Sebino's classmates at Rally--I think he must have been competing on the gym floor. 

Waiting for the parade.

Homecoming's Mismatch Day

The week of Homecoming at Mountain Valley High School there are five dress-up days. Today, we had Mismatch Day and the boys were all over it. I heard them get up early, and they were planning their mis-matched outfits. Here are Sebino and Guido when Connie picked them up:

Mismatch Day at Mountain Valley High School