Founding Day 2025
Muster was scheduled for 08:00 along the road next to Spanish Wall ball field. The evening before, floats had already parked next to the Kolonia town gym. Two strong wind bursts along with torrential rain at sunset decimated the bananas on the ChuuChok float. The ChuuChok team moved the float to Nahnpohnmal to rebuild in an all night effort.
The theme for the 32nd founding day was "Rooted in tradition, growing through innovation, thriving with resilience."
Parade launch was scheduled for 09:00 with actual departure at twenty minutes after the hour. There is a low handing category five internet cable across the driveway at the gym. A stick was used to flip the cable over the taller floats.
The parade reached the capitol at 09:32.
Keeping the state flags four abreast put one state across the centerline, which was not problematic as traffic was essentially at a standstill with motorists videoing the parade. Note the driver of the mini-flatbed making a video of the marchers.
Centerpoint was crossed at 09:37.
A switch was made up front which worked well. The concept had been for the lead to be traditionally attired. A recommendation for a future cultural founding day might be to have a student in traditional attire carry the mace.
Arrival at the field he field was just before 10:00. That puts the parade at 40 to 50 minutes from start to finish.
ChuuChok was first after the march in and opening remarks. ChuuChok took the stage at 11:05 and exited around 11:29 after two performances.
Pohnpei national student organization was on stage by 11:31. PSO finished around 11:42
Kosrae was on stage from 11:47 to 11:52 with a single dance.
CTEC was on stage with a group from U from 12:03 to 12:16
Nukap was included in CTEC.
Yap student organization had drawn the lead position in the parade but swapped with ChuuChok. ChuuChok had pulled anchor in the random draw, but YSO preferred to go last in the parade. The dance performance order followed the parade order. YSO was on stage from 12:29 to 12:35.
After Yap danced, lunch was distributed. The dining hall produced 800 take-outs for the event, with all take-outs in place by around eleven in the morning. During lunch the choir sang but the reality is that hungry students did not pay much attention to the singing and the bulk of the invited podium guests had left. The upside was that the music class students had the opportunity to join the choir for a public performance.
There were ample lunches, with take-outs apparently still available right through to the end of the event. Water was also in ample supply - a large white container held ice and water, with water bottles still available through to the end of the afternoon.
Lunch required roughly 40 minutes including distribution of the food.
By just after one in the afternoon ChuuChok was demonstrating Mortlockese outer island hard taro pounding.
PSO had done their performance as the opening sakau ceremony. The ceremony was done according to customs of Nett, in which the track and field is located.
Kosrae displayed basket weaving, they had pounded fafa earlier over in their tent because the taro has to be pounded hot. Scheduling fafa pounding is challenging.
By 14:09 Yap student organization was presenting their crafts.
Rope making.
After this sports certificates were awarded. By this time the grandstand was empty - the college board meeting has started at 14:00. Many students had also left at this point.
ChuuChok gathered for a group photo after the cultural craft displays.
One thought for 2027 in two years: consider holding the event at Spanish Wall, parading down from the state track and field or starting from CTEC. Or potentially foregoing the parade. The college could set up tents and a stage on the west side with the Spanish Wall as a backdrop for the stage. The photos would be awesome. Tents could go in the field with a larger central tent for invited guests. The audience would all be facing east, so no one would be "behind" the performances.
The one caveat is that this arrangement presumes there are no ball games happening in the ball field. Otherwise home runs land in the tents. In general, ball games are in the evenings on weekdays, so this should not be an issue.
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