Chris Hardy -- The band The Daylights played while students kept warm around the large bonfire on the front lawn at CBU.
On Friday, Feb. 17 the Homecoming king, queen, and underclassmen princes and princesses were crowned at the Homecoming bonfire on the front lawn of California Baptist University.
Each of the nominees were dressed in flowing gowns and flashy tuxedos.
The underclassmen princes and princesses were announced first, starting with Logan Cross and Megan Turner of the freshmen class. For the sophomore class, Bryan Jarboe and Emily Brown were announced. Bryce Burditt and Christina Machuca were then announced as the junior prince and princess.
All of the king and queen nominees were then invited up to the stage and stood lined up in front of the princes and princesses. Once lined up, information was shared about each nominee. Most nominees chose to share something they liked to do such as “growing beards” or “watching the Red Sox.”
After all the nominees were on the stage, there was a drum roll and Sammy Ramos and Kelly Leonard were announced CBU’s Homecoming King and Queen of 2012.
Ramos and Leonard received their crowns and sashes from CBU alumni and Homecoming King and Queen 2011, Will Byers and Brenna Hawn, and sang the school’s alma mater.
Shortly after, the gigantic bonfire became the main event. Various students in the engineering program designed and constructed a catapult that launched fire into the 30-foot long, 10-foot high stack of crates on the front lawn.
Promptly at 8:30 p.m., the fireball was launched into the middle of the stack of crates as everyone cheered. Unfortunately, there was too much sand in the middle of the fort created that it did not catch right away. Someone had to walk over to the stack and push some of the flats onto the flames.
The warmth from the flames grew and grew. One could still feel the heat from almost 15-feet away from the roped off area.
“The bonfire and crowning were so much fun,” freshmen, Lauren Garcia said. “It was cool to see in my first year how spirited the school is in all of the planned events going on throughout the weekend.”
A short time later, the band “The Daylights” began to perform for the crowd enjoying the warmth of the fire as a perfect kick off to Homecoming Weekend 2012.
