Homecoming Campaign

Tyaan decided to run for homecoming court this year. She had been considering it for several weeks because she thought it would be fun to do, but hesitant about it because she wasn't sure if she would get on. She decided to do it, went to a meeting where they told them the rules of campaigning, and the week long project began. We went Friday night and picked up some supplies. She was aloud to have 50 posters, and she wanted to make some shirts and rally tags. (Postcard sized tags which can be tied to backpacks)

On Saturday we started making everything. She used a nickname of hers "Ty-rex" as a theme and made stencils of a cute T-rex. Everything came out really great but it turned into hours and hours of work. Luckily Russell came over and helped us. I don't know what we would have done without him. We worked all afternoon and until after 10:00 Saturday night when we ran out of green spray paint. We ran to the store to get more but we got there just after they closed, so that put an end to the rally tag making until Monday. We did get all of the posters and all 13 shirts finished Sunday, although I was up most of the night putting the last of the writing on them. She went to school on Monday morning with 13 shirts (They were all white except for 2 red, one for her and one for her homecoming date) about 175 rally tags, and 49 posters (one got messed up and had to be tossed). At just after 8 am the next morning I got a message from her saying she was out of rally tags, and all of her shirts and posters were put up and distributed before the end of the day.


Posters:

So needless to say Monday evening was spent making more rally tags. A few of her friends came over, Russell included, and we got another 225 tags done. They looked really great. Tyaan liked how I wrote on them, so I was the only one who did the writing. So I was up most of the night, again, finishing writing and putting the ties on. Luckily doing the writing kept me away from spray painting and I avoided having green fingers. So at that point we had made 400 rally tags.



Once again, early during the next day she was out of rally tags again! We weren't available Tuesday night to make more, but Wednesday we decided it was worth one more night since there was still two days of campaigning to do. I went and bought 300 more index cards, a couple of Tyaan's friends came over, and we went back to work. We finished all 300 (another late night for me) for the next day. By then we had a system going and it went quicker than the first 2 batches we had done. (Yes, we made 700 rally tags - and she could have used hundreds more)

Rally Tags:

Friday came, the day of voting, and we were both nervous. There was just over 30 girls running and there's only 5 on court. Tyaan felt she had a pretty good chance of making it, but there were several others she knew had a good chance as well.


It turned out that she didn't make it on court, but it really was a lot of fun to try. I was really worried that she'd take it hard, but she didn't. I think it was really good for her to see how many people supported her and helped her campaign. I got to see some of the other rally tags and shirts that the other girls had done and Tyaan's were by far the best I saw. It was great to see some of her friends come and put in some hours helping her paint the tags, and she could have gone through lots more shirts if we had been willing to make them. And she got so much encouragement and great feedback from other students at her school. We've decided that she must have finished 6th. :-) I'm really proud of her for being brave enough to run, and proud of myself because I know I'm part of the reason she's become such a confident girl. She is pretty amazing!

Update!!! It's official, she came in 6th place. Isn't that a killer?!