MILLEDGEVILLE, Illinois-- Nothing was going to stop the Milledgeville community from having its homecoming parade, not even mother nature.
"I was worried we weren't going to have this because there were trees down on every road," Milledgeville High School sophomore Grace Jakobs said.
Powerful storms swept through the village Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018, at 60 miles an hour. But with the help of neighboring fire departments and tree removal services, the town made light work of the downed trees and power outages.
"They were all cleaning up," sophomore Nikki Ebersole said. "There were kids that missed school to help clean-up. It didn't take them long and all the trees were gone."
People living in the area said it was important to make the parade happen.
"It's just such a big thing to show off the high school, and it's our biggest event of the year," senior Andrew Feary said.
So Thursday night, the floats lined up, the band played and the homecoming parade made its way down a road free of debris.
"This was kind of the culmination of everybody getting through what happened on Tuesday and coming together and celebrating the good parts of our community," Milledgeville High School Principal Brian Maloy said.
The Milledgeville Missiles take on the Warren Warriors tomorrow night.