Ninety-four dreams Jefferson City area residents had - plus exactly 1,100 more - and in every one was a mascot of various hue.
Now, it's in a small way all over as Friday a full gym of students, Jefferson City school district staff, Board of Education members and other people stood and sat pretty excited with anticipation inside Thomas Jefferson Middle School, waiting to see and maybe grab some balloon souvenirs to prove which mascot and school colors dream was to be realized here.
Then there it was: royal blue and silver balloons, let go from the ceiling of the gym's stage to reveal that the public had chosen Cavaliers to represent Capital City High School.
There weren't 99 balloons dropped from the ceiling at the mascot and school colors reveal ceremony at TJMS - there were 1,000 balloons, JCPS Superintendent Larry Linthacum said - but the fact that none of the balloons were red is a statement that the community chose to forge a new identity for CCHS, separate from the red and black Jaybirds of sibling Jefferson City High School.
The public gave JCPS 1,194 ideas for a mascot and school colors for CCHS when the district asked for submissions.
A committee of 22 district staff members, TJMS students, parents, community members and partners in education narrowed the thousands of ideas down to small slate the district's Board of Education approved to put forward to final vote by the public last week: Cavaliers, Ravens or Panthers that would be Carolina blue and gray, royal blue and silver, or royal purple and silver.
None of the mascot or color combination ideas the committee ultimately put forward were the most popular of the public's suggestions, but that was a conscious choice to establish CCHS's identity as something new.
TJMS sixth-grader Tyren Whitaker, seventh-grader Noah Coleman and eighth-grader Taylor Hovis were all members of the committee. TJMS students will attend high school at CCHS once it's planned to be open in the fall of 2019.
"It's really different from a Jay(bird), and that's what I wanted most," Coleman said after the reveal, adding that he liked the colors, too.
Whitaker wanted the royal purple option, but he and Hovis liked the Cavaliers - Hovis approved of the colors, too.
The reveal is really just the beginning of the shaping of CCHS's identity, though.
After TJMS's students greeted the balloon drop and reveal of the Cavaliers mascot name on a sheet-covered chalkboard with a foot-stomped improvised drum roll, JCPS Director of Secondary Education Gary Verslues took a position front and center to tell students what to expect from the future.
He greeted each TJMS class as the first alumni of CCHS - eighth-graders as the first graduating class of 2022, seventh-graders in 2023 and sixth-graders in 2024 - all to cheers.
"Your parents, our district patrons, approved $130 million to renovate the new Jefferson City High School and to build Capital City High School, the home of the Cavaliers. They have done their part. It's your turn; it's our turn to do our part to become the premier school district in the state of Missouri," Verslues said.
"Let's not wait. We've got a job to do. I want each and every one of you to own it. Here's what I mean. Regardless of what the name ended up being, regardless of what the school colors ended up being, a building is just a building, but it becomes what you make it," he continued.
"We need to start thinking about a school fight song, an alma mater, cheers, traditions - and that can start right now," he added.
Logo design and development for CCHS are pending, JCPS Director of School-Community Relations Amy Berendzen said.