In the opening weeks of the new school year, the school held two annual, back-to-school events: the combined Food Truck Fest and the revealing of this year’s Homecoming theme “board games” on Aug. 16, followed by the All-School BBQ lunch hosted by the PTSO on Aug. 23.
The Food Truck Fest included five food trucks and numerous recreational activities in the McAfee parking lot. The Homecoming reveal in the gym took place later that evening. The school’s leadership team, including ASB, individual class officers, commissioners and leadership advisor Kristen Cunningham, organized both events. For the Food Truck Fest, class officers contacted local food trucks and negotiated a percentage of the food trucks’ revenue to ensure a profit for their respective classes. Each grade generated a few hundred dollars, which was added to their class budget for future events.
“It was great seeing how much our community enjoyed the food trucks,” senior ASB president Alan Cai said. “However, it is our utmost priority to ensure that students can get their food as fast as possible. For future events, we will work to speed up the lines so that attendees can spend more time with their friends and families.”
This year’s event featured food trucks Taco Axolotl, GrillZilla, Cookies N’ Cream and Chick N’ Bros.
Junior Chester Bunker bites down on beef tacos from Taco Axolotl.
A sibling duo eagerly views the multicolored Kona Ice menu.
Despite the food trucks’ long wait times, younger children enjoyed the inflatable play structure and axe-throwing stations.
A group of kids play on the inflatable race structure.
In the midst of all the commotion from the food trucks and play structures, some tuned into a live concert starring Pollen Prone, a band composed of juniors Alec Guan, Alex Ge and Shirina Cao and sophomore Mason Cheng.
Junior Alec Guan performs “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath with his band, Pollen Prone.
Seniors Aaradhya Patil, Justin Choi, Steven Ning and Andy Zhu share a laugh at a joke.
Toward the end of the event, students were ushered into the large gym to watch the Homecoming theme reveal video, produced by the Tech Commission. The short production assigned the freshmen to Jumanji, sophomores to Clue, juniors to Candyland, seniors to Monopoly and staff to the Game of Life.
Most student reactions were moderate, with some pessimistic feedback among the junior class due to the relatively lower popularity of Candyland in comparison to the other board games.
One junior told The Falcon, “Candyland is a very millennial board game, almost no one in the junior class has even played the game. While the other classes get games like Clue and Monopoly. We are stuck with a theme that we don’t know anything about.”
The Homecoming reveal marks the start of preparations for the annual week-long quad day performances set to take place from Oct. 14-18. The Homecoming dance will follow the night after on Oct. 19. Though only the senior class is allowed to decorate the quad to fit their theme, all grades and staff will still participate in dances and skits for the quad day competition. This followed low participation in deco, which led this decision to being made.
The week following Food Truck Fest, parent volunteers gathered in the early morning on Aug. 23 to prepare stacks of burgers, hotdogs, watermelon and snacks for the All-School BBQ.
This year, the PTSO organizers aimed to feed all students and staff in under 10 minutes, besting previous efforts. Parents set up tents, and decorated tables with all kinds of foods and snacks, leaving an eager crowd of students waiting for the bell to ring and signal the start of lunch.
Crowds of students gathered in line for the food, socializing and participating in the school-spirited atmosphere.
Burgers pile high in food trays, ready to be served to students.
Freshman Rachel Chen places a boba order at the ASB fundraising stand.
Junior Edward He takes a watermelon slice from a parent volunteer.
“We appreciate PTSO for putting this event on for our school community. Their unwavering dedication to our school helps us climb to new heights,” Cai said.
