Students at U.S. Jones Elementary School have been working for about two months to get ready for their part in the Christmas on the River day parade.

To carry on a tradition started by Ellen Dickerson and Mary Price in the 1980s, students have created paper-mache heads depicting cartoon characters from today and years past.

Dana Hill, the teacher at U.S. Jones behind the creation of the heads this year, said there wasn’t much money for the art program this school year, so the children and their parents have supported the project this year.

“There was no art money this year,” she said, “so the kids and their parents donated money to keep it going. The Chamber also donated to help us this year.”

To create the heads, students start with a balloon and mold it with household items to make it look like popular cartoon characters.

The fifth-grade enrichment program has worked on this project during their Friday afternoon class time for the past couple of months in order to have them ready for the parade on Saturday morning at 11:30 a.m.