[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][nectar_slider location=”Hoco Hall Decorating” arrow_navigation=”true” desktop_swipe=”true”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]Whether to receive points for Student Council or spend time with friends from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sep. 19, students filed in, giving up their Saturday to elaborately decorate the hallways. One group’s sole job was to create posters with iconic lyrics from songs like Taylor Swift’s “Wildest Dreams” to line the walls. Another group used super glue to construct a Super “H” made out of old records donated by Half Price Books. The ordinarily empty library windows were painted to incorporate album covers of country, rap and indie music, but the eight senior windows for pop and throwback songs were the last ones completed because of peeling paint, resulting in a rushed, start-from-scratch race to complete the windows in time.

“My favorite part is just seeing everyone come together and uniting on the goal of decorating the school,” President Spencer Roark said. “Yes, it’s tedious, but in the end it’s really rewarding … Keeping Stroud calm is always the most difficult aspect of the day.”

By about 8 p.m., the halls were dark and musty from a lack of air conditioning and sponsor Ben Stroud dismissed all the idle students. The ones who remained finally got a chance to admire the transformation from the day-to-day school to this year’s homecoming theme, “On the Run to State” inspired by Beyonce’s tour last year.

“You basically start with a blank canvas,” Secretary Loren Querickiol said. “Everyone knows how the school started out looking. I think the best part is seeing the end result and always being surprised at how good it is every single year.” [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][/vc_column][/vc_row]