I’ve been watching from a safe distance for months as the tifo crew went through the planning and testing and adjusting process for the end-of-season display. They are an intrepid group, a group that works harder than most will ever know.

Any late interest in Plan F: Rent a big disco ball and have it light up the rafters?

Ideas were proposed, discussed, changed, scrapped, reborn. There was an elaborate contraption made of pvc and connectors, a weather balloon, strings of LED lights that went unused.

Learned an unhappy lesson this afternoon – trim your fingernails before inflating a weather balloon.

Trial and error, opportunities for learning and laughing and growing and groaning. Brilliant 2 a.m. ideas faded in the light of morning and were replaced by even more brilliant ideas. People floated in and out of the discussion and then, at long last, fabric was laid out and paint brushes taken up and a beautiful thing happened.

Simple and elegant, it said so many things. By the time it was raised, the Thorns were already outside of the playoff picture but, despite a disappointing season, we still saw them as the Belles of the Ball.

They are the reason we do what we do. They are why we show up en masse. They are the catalyst for the magic that happens in the sometimes indecipherable minds of the tifo crew.

Is helium actually a need?

I look at the work that’s created by this group of folks and I know just how lucky we are to have them. Working with materials that have been salvaged from previous displays and often donating materials they’ve gathered, they create short-lived works of art for the express purpose of delivering a message to the players on the field and, perhaps to a greater extent, the world.

We support you, our beloved Thorns. We know this season did not go according to plan, but we’re still here. Let’s dance.