In 2012, Potomac Falls HS came up with the bold alternative that is now known as the block party in place of the Homecoming parade. Two years ago, the Virginia Department of Transportation would not grant PFHS the permit to close Algonkian Parkway, newly deemed “major thoroughfare” that the Homecoming parade took place on. This year, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Department made the decision to charge for their services, where they had previously provided the service voluntarily. The LCSD would have earned 3 hours overtime, their minimum requirement, for their 30 minutes of active work during the parade. Several members of the community called PFHS and offered to help fundraise; however, this offer was made three weeks before the parade would have taken place, which made a parade implausible. While members and administrators would have preferred to host both a parade and block party, they soon realized that this switch could be nothing but an improvement.

The block party is gives members of the community the chance to connect with Potomac Falls HS students face-to-face more so than a detached parade. Smaller clubs now get the chance to participate as well, encouraging the entire school to become a part of this inclusive celebration. It is for these reasons that leaders within PFHS were bewildered when adult members of the community complained to the head of the Student Council Association, the past principal as well as the new principal who had just arrived at the time, the Parent/Teacher/Student Association, the School Board Representative, and a Virginia State Delegate throughout August and September the past two years. The icing on top of the cake was an adult member of the community and parent of two children, both under the age of 10, complaining about the lack of a Homecoming parade to The Washington Post, stating, “[The Potomac Falls Homecoming parade] is the only community event we really have.” As a person who has lived in the same house one mile from the school my entire life, I find that statement incredibly fallacious. Not only are there state- and county-wide events, but local events such as the Cascades Fall Festival hosted at Potomac Falls.

In the past, the Homecoming parade at Potomac Falls HS featured the school band and about 10 floats per year; this year (so far) over 20 clubs have signed up to do hands-on booths at the block party. While the block party will lack the pelting of hard candies at children, PFHS can ensure that the adult members of the community (whose social lives I’m sure are still in tact since the switch) will find the block party once again as fulfilling if not more so by the 2nd Annual Homecoming block party.