Long hours, harsh competition mark float building experience

For the past week, the basement of the Dedman Life Center hasbeen transformed into a temporary late-night workshop for many SMUstudents participating in this year’s parade.

As most of us were sleeping in our comfy beds or cramming fortests the following day, other SMU students were putting togetherelaborate floats to circle the campus on homecoming game day.

This year, SMU’s Homecoming Parade theme is “Let theGood Times Roll.” The parade consists of 25 different studentorganizations and 17 floats, including special entries anddignitaries.

Float building began Oct. 20 and ended on Thursday. To ease theworkload, some of the organizations chose to partner with othergroups, while some organizations decided to work alone.

“We are setting up a workshop and expect to be here fortwo straight days,” explained senior Pi Kappa Alpha BrentTimmeran as he adjusted a satellite dish for a 36-inch television.Within the next few moments, a delivery man from Big Al’sarrived to deliver a large pizza. Tahoes filled the room with theirback windows opened to provide entertainment to float builders asthey watched movies.

“Parade building has been in the 24-hour stage wheregroups stay all hours of the night to finish their floats,”said sophomore Student Foundation homecoming chairwoman, KatieHorgan. Float building creates a great bonding experience for allof the diverse organizations and a fun environment, but becomesvery tiresome, Horgan said. “The organizations do it fortheir candidates and in an attempt to become the winner of thefloat competition,” said Horgan.

The Asian Council is one of many groups involved in the floatbuilding. Members of the council incorporated a beach theme totheir float, “Fun in the Sun,” and look forward tobeing the representative of all the Asian organizations on campus.”Homecoming gets the word out there that Asian Council is anumbrella for all of the [Asian] organizations,” stated MarkLau, secretary for the Asian Council.

During the first week of float building, the team designed thestructure and engineering of the float and began decorating it thesecond week. The team said that many visits to Home Depot areusually required throughout the week in order to obtain all oftheir needed supplies. Jason Chyung, council member, said,”It is nice sharing tools and working with otherorganizations.”

Lau believes that “building the float is an activity thatbrings the Asian Council together and allows us to show our schoolsupport while having a great time.”

In addition to the Asian Council’s themed float, theResident Hall Association presents a new insight to dorm life withRHA Cribs. Mike Rahmn, Hall Council President for Perkins, proposedthe theme. Rahmn said that the guys worked together to build thehouse on their float and that the materials used consist ofpre-treated wood and non-hazardous material. “Float buildingis a great bonding experience for the residents,” statedsophomore R.A. Kimberly Woodard.

“It’s all about the planning,” said stressedfirst-year class council president, Mitchell London. The”Bedrock N’ Roll” float builders learned thislesson when the pomp-paper used to stuff the chicken wire did notarrive on time. Also, the Student Senate ordered a six-foot floatand received an eight-foot float instead.

In addition, the Delta Gammas and Sigma Chis learned that floatbuilding is all about trial and error. The students worked outsideon their 20-foot float and had to measure the lights on Hillcrestto make sure their float would fit.

Horgan said that float building is truly an exciting activitythat brings the student body together. “The coolest thingthat we have this year is the sailing team is going to drag asailboat, and the motorcycle club will follow the Kappa Kappa Gammaand Pi Kappa Alpha Harley Davidson float,” Horgan said.

The Homecoming Committee believes that the parade is going to bebigger and better than ever.

The floats are judged based on their theme in relation to theoverall homecoming theme, creativity, originality and use ofresources.

The float judging will take place at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. Thewinner will be recognized during half time at the footballgame.

The parade, which takes place on Saturday before the game,starts at 10:30 a.m. and ends by 11:30 a.m. on Saturday before thegame.

The parade route starts on Daniel, goes down Hillcrest, throughthe Highland Park United Methodist Church parking lot and finallycircles around Bishop Boulevard, ending behind Wescott Field.

The Homecoming committee encourages everyone to come out andsupport SMU and the students as they “let the good timesroll.”