A group of Boone students participated in the BLINK parade on Oct. 10 in Cincinnati. The students were from the school’s art program.

BLINK is a “light based festival” held in Cincinnati, Ohio and Covington, Ky. covering over 30 city blocks and the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge. The event was held on Oct. 10-13 from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. on all days.

The students knew they were walking in the parade because art teacher Rita Grant and photography teacher Daniel Edie told them about it and asked the group who would want to help. Edie says that one of the parade organizers, Pam Kravetz, contacted Ryle High School art teacher Julie Harwood about them being in the parade and Harwood gave the information to Grant and Edie for more northern Kentucky presence.

Boone’s art club created a float with lights around the poles and a 3-foot tall paper mache pig on it. They chose a pig because of the Flying Pig Marathon.

Senior Calie Meggitt, a member of the art club, was one of many people that helped make it so successful. She said the initial idea was having a queen on the float and making the pig the “queen” to represent the pig from the Flying Pig Marathon.

The Flying Pig Marathon gets its name from Cincinnati’s famous meat packing industry history, especially for pork. They used to even march pigs through the downtown streets.

“My favorite parts were all of the people clapping and the little kid’s reaction after giving them my glow sticks,” said junior Alyssa Hicks. Another art student that participated in the parade said that her favorite part of BLINK was all of the different art that was there.

The students painted their faces with star-like features to represent all of the lights at BLINK and some of them did their hair. They wore all black clothes and had glow sticks around their necks, wrists, and in their hands.

The Boone group differed from the other groups because their float was smaller than some of    the others but they said they were more creative than other groups. Two of the students in the parade said that they would definitely go next year if they had the opportunity.

There were more than 50 groups in the parade, including students from Cooper and Ryle and other schools from Cincinnati. There were thousands of people watching the parade and several news channels broadcasting the event.