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South senior's Pear project blossoms Jim Craven photo Pear Blossom parade and high school graduation requirements merged this week for Nicole Keck. The South Medford High School senior built a float celebrating the Class of 2000 as her senior project. By Joanna Collins Surrounded by paint cans and scraps of cardboard and paper, Nicole Keck has transformed her back yard into float-building headquarters. Nicole's fingers, covered in paint, smear the blue of the South Medford High School Panthers over everything she touches. This includes the family's cordless phone, sister Colette points out. Colette, 15, has not yet noticed the blue spots on the corduroy pants Nicole borrowed from her. "I know," Nicole says about the phone. "Mom's going to kill me." Nicole, 17, a senior at South, spent Friday afternoon putting the finishing touches on her float for today's Pear Blossom Parade, which kicks off at 11 a.m. The float, part of her required senior project, represents her and her fellow members of the Class of 2000. All of her life, Nicole says, teachers have reminded her that she will be part of the first graduating classes of the new millennium. She also grew up in the midst of the annual Pear Blossom celebration: She watches the runners race near her west Medford house every year. The combination of these two events gave Nicole the idea of building the Class of 2000 float for the parade. "Since I didn't really like to run, I thought this would be a better alternative," she jokes. A large cardboard and paper-mache 2000 will sit on a flatbed trailer, surrounded by matching strips of netting. Glittering stars, precariously attached with wire, dangle from the numbers. A panther, South High's mascot, will complement the blue and silver colors used in the spirit of the high school class. "It'll be simple, but this has definitely been enough work," Nicole says. She says this float is nothing like the simpler float she helped classmates build for homecoming. Nicole estimates she's put in 30 hours on the float since she began Sunday. That's in addition to school, daily two-hour softball practice, raising a 4-H pig and working as a hostess at Roadhouse Grill. Luckily, she isn't alone. Friend Taylor Casey, 18, is helping, making trips to the store for glitter. She's painted and done some papier-mache too. "I've learned how to be a good friend," says Taylor, who will ride on the float today with Nicole and the panther mascot. Nicole's two younger sisters, Colette and Mandy, also have pitched in. Mother Jennifer gathered the cardboard and paper necessary for the messy job. Her father, Daniel, will pull the float trailer with his truck. As far as she knows, Nicole is the only senior at South doing any project like this. "The kids have a lot of say in what they want to do," says Todd Bloomquist, the head of the South High English and social sciences departments. He says senior projects can range from community work to music lessons for athletes. In addition to a minimum of 20 hours work on the actual project, seniors must write a research paper and give a presentation on their topic. Nicole wrote about the history of floats and parades for her paper -- a difficult topic to find information on, she says. She's yet to give the presentation. "I like doing things that are creative," she says. But Nicole doesn't plan to make a career out of float-building. She hopes to attend Oregon State University next fall, with plans to one day be an FBI agent or dentist. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA