Like many years prior, on Labor Day this year, the city of Greenbelt hosted the annual Labor Day Festival Parade with a line-up of over 50 different clubs and organizations throughout the area, one being our very own Parkdale Student Government Association (SGA). 

Parkdale SGA, one of the school’s most prominent organizations, was invited to take part in the parade. Parkdale SGA has a rich history of being involved in several different activities throughout the community, and the Greenbelt Labor Day Festival Parade was no exception. 

The parade began at 10:00 on Saturday morning at Buddy Attick Park in the city of Greenbelt and ended by the Greenbelt Branch Library. 

This year, the theme of the parade was youth advocacy. With that theme in mind, the officers and members of Parkdale SGA took charge of different signs about different causes they believed in and wanted to spread awareness for. 

With many other organizations, SGA marched the parade chanting not only promoting quotes of Parkdale SGA, but also about stopping violence, improving the public school education system, and ending discrimination in schools. 

Some signs were about social issues, like gun control, women’s rights, and racial discrimination. Other signs were about issues more personal to the students of Parkdale, like raising teacher pay, having access to more resources, having clean bathrooms, and improving school lunch. 

“We wanted to really talk about pressing issues, and of course SGA is all about student advocacy so what better than a parade all about youth advocacy?” said senior Matthew Conte.

Through the encouragement and support of SGA sponsor Mr.Neville Adams, over 40 Parkdale students and SGA members attended the parade in representation of the school. 

Other schools, like Eleanor Roosevelt High which is located in Greenbelt, had their JROTC program participate in the parade. However, Parkdale SGA was invited to be part of the parade even though Parkdale isn’t part of Greenbelt, all because of its history in advocacy and community outreach. 

“Part of the reason why I feel Parkdale SGA always ends up being part of these big events is because Parkdale SGA is all about being the voice for students,” said senior Rayanna Morris.  “We saw an opportunity to talk about issues important to us and we took it.” 

For the entire mile, there were chants like “2, 4, 6, 8, stop the violence, stop the hate” and “Education not discrimination!” This grabbed the attention of police officers, families, and members of the community, with some cheering on Parkdale SGA and others even wanting a picture with the very own Parkdale Panther. 

With another community event down in the books for Parkdale SGA, they encourage students to continue to show up, and not only represent Parkdale but speak their minds on anything they think worthy of sharing. In the end, this parade was just the kick start of the school year.

“We have a lot of things planned for this school year,” said senior Isha Sesay, president of the SGA Executive Board.