Last school day transforms into special event in Myakka

When Ezekiel DeSear, a third grader at Myakka City Elementary School, saw a giant robot standing outside his school May 27, his jaw dropped.

He was overwhelmed by Megamorph, a full-sized police car capable of transforming into a robot that looks similar to Bumblebee from the movie “Transformers.”

“That is so cool,” he said.

Myakka resident Cyndel Flores decided to bring Megamorph on campus to make the students’ last day of school memorable, especially when they had spent their last months of school at home e-learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The students were present May 27 to pick up their belongings from the just-concluded school year.

Flores, 22, saw how her sister, Ziana, a third grader at the elementary school, was missing her friends and teachers.

“They’re not having the same end-of-the-year parties and get-togethers,” Flores said. “This is something for them to say, ‘Oh, well, in 2020 we had a robot in our drive-thru when we were doing the whole quarantine thing.”

As students picked up their belongings, they stopped to take photos with the robot. Some would talk to Megamorph and thank him for coming.

“[Megamorph] was a great way to help celebrate the end of this unique year,” said Carol Ricks, the principal at Myakka City Elementary. 

The Floreses are a circus family known as Fearless Flores. They try to elevate people’s excitement through different forms of entertainment, such as with Megamorph or defying gravity while riding a motorcycle in the Globe of Death.

Having Megamorph at the school is sentimental for the Flores family because the older sisters all attended Myakka City Elementary School.

“I don’t feel like I ever left because my brother was here, and then my sister was here, and I guess I’m involved a lot,” Flores said. “I feel like I’m always at the school.”

Ricks said the Flores family bringing Megamorph to the school is a “perfect example” of how the Myakka City community supports the school and its students.