Gallery • 5 Photos

Claire Scahffer

Mums representing each grade hang on a rack a week and a half before Homecoming.

As you walk into the mum room, you see rows upon rows of school-colored ribbons and neat boxes labeled with the various school activities and clubs. With Homecoming just two weeks away the Mum Moms are busy at work. The final day to order mums is Sept. 15. Mums can be purchased online at the following website: http://whspto.net/HOMECOMING-MUMS_c_11.html

These moms start working on mums as early as May and work all through the summer. They spend all day in the mum room creating customized ribbon arrangements, keeping the homecoming tradition alive. Most moms will come and go as they have time because many have students currently attending Westlake. Making mums is extremely time consuming so many moms will stay all day.

“A single mum takes about four hours to make,”Mum Mom Kathy Elswick said.

The pricing of mums varies depen

ding on their size.

“A single mum is $50, a double mum is $90, and a super-sized one is $150,” Elswick said. “Arm bands are $25,”

Mums Moms make more than 1,000 mums and armbands a year.

“About 450 of the 1200 mums are armbands,” Elswick said.

The Mum Moms work hard to make sure everyone’s special activities are accounted for. Over the years they have added more and more options to the list of specializations available.

“We have a wide variety of activities [to choose from], not just school activities. Someone may like pets and request for that to be on [the mum], or church things from outside school too,” Elswick said.

According to a Mum Mom, the most rewarding part about making mums is seeing the students’ faces when they come to pick them up. Some kids will even stop by the Mum room to thank them. Overall students seem to be happy with the outcome of their mum.

“It’s fun to get a Mum because they are really pretty and when you wear one it feels like you are contributing to school spirit,” junior Chandler Bryant said.