Eric Amikam and Matt Sassaman may still be in high school, but the two seniors from Chattahoochee High School, along with their fellow students, are pulling out all the stops for this year’s Johns Creek Founder’s Day Parade.

“We’re definitely more prepared this year,” Amikam said. “We’ve already been getting our designs and getting together our team.”

The sixth annual Founders Day Parade will be Dec. 1, capping off a week-long celebration of the city’s incorporation. Johns Creek Risk Manager Elizabeth Warren, who is serving as one of the parade organizers, said the parade has been growing in participants since year one.

This year the parade’s theme is “Traveling Thru the Creek,” which Warren said was inspired by the creativity of float-builders in previous years.

“People have been getting more creative,” she said. “The vehicles are much more impressive so we picked that as a theme to incorporate all forms of transportation.”

Warren said the parade is also more organized and will be shown on Comcast’s community channel for 60 days after the event.

This year there will be three first place winners, Warren said — One for schools, one for homeowners associations and neighborhoods and a third for civic organizations. The engineering students at Chattahoochee decided to get a jump on their float design early so they can have time to design, create and decorate with students from all over the school.

“I usually just float out a little bit of an idea and pass it off to my engineers to design it,” Chattahoochee Principal Tim Duncan said.

Sassaman said the building process can be stressful but is a lot of fun, and Amikam said it’s all worth it when their float — which has used hydraulics and programming equipment in past years – works.

The city is accepting float applications through Nov. 16. To secure a spot in the parade, interested groups or organizations can fill out an application from the city’s website and submit it to Warren.

Information: www.johnscreekga.gov/news2012/2012-08-30_float-applications.aspx.