Kaneland High's first homecoming parade steps off in Elburn

Kaneland pride was on display Wednesday evening in Elburn, during the school's first real homecoming parade.

And it was fitting the parade ended by coming home to the old Elburn High School, now the Elburn and Countryside Community Center.

Golf carts decorated by Kaneland High School students, the candidates for homecoming king and queen, sports teams, the marching band and more traveled from the Elburn village hall to the community center along First Street.

“It has been a long time coming,” said Lori Grant, student council adviser and instructional coach at the high school.

“We really, really wanted to bring our communities together and for our kids to be recognized and for the community to see all Kaneland has to offer.”

Students come from nine towns and eight townships, spread out over 140 square miles, from Cortland on the north to Montgomery on the south. The district was formed in 1948 by the consolidation of several smaller rural districts. In 1958, it closed Elburn and Maple Park high schools (ones in Sugar Grove and Kaneville closed in 1949) and opened the current Kaneland High at Meredith and Keslinger roads, near Maple Park. The school is still surrounded by farm fields.

“There is no central town to have one (parade),” Grant said.

The student council and school administrators plan to rotate the parade through four of the towns. Next year, it will be in Kaneville, followed by Maple Park and Sugar Grove.

The school also changed the format for voting for king and queen. Clubs were asked to nominate candidates and submitted 40 names. The field was narrowed to 10 at the powder-puff flag football game Wednesday night, and the winners will be named at Friday night's varsity football game.

Members of the Class of 1965 participated. They decided their school spirit required more than a golf cart, and so they built a float.