Daily Collegian - Storm tests PSU pride (First Place Float)
A record-breaking snowfall disintegrated floats -- but not spirits -- at Friday's Homecoming parade.
Students and alumni lined State College sidewalks as the parade wound through the streets despite the chill and snow. Some attempted to remain dry by watching the parade from under the HUB Parking Deck.
"I love how people out here freeze their butts off," said Saba Al-zaid (freshman-chemistry), who was at her first Penn State Homecoming parade. "I love the pride here."
Alhough some of the floats were ruined by the snowy weather, Wafaa Taha said she still enjoyed the parade.
"It would've been better if it wasn't snowing," Taha (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) said.
The snow hit a Wild West-themed float particularly hard -- all that remained by the time it reached the judges' table was a deflated cowboy hat. Students in the crowd commented that it looked like a "ghost town."
But other floats remained intact, twirling and lighting up on cue.
Phi Sigma Rho sorority and Theta Chi fraternity won for the greek floats.
Floats were judged primarily on Penn State pride and creativity, float judge Heather James, Class of 1992, said.
Mike Herr, who works in the post office on campus, said he was honored to be a judge.
"I guarantee no other town in this country has a parade like this. The spirit is unbelievable," Herr said. "I'm amazed at the creativity of the students. I don't think there was a bad float in the parade."
Besides the floats, the Blue Band and Alumni Blue Band walked in the parade with present and past majorettes and Blue Sapphire P.J. Maierhofer. The Penn State Juggling Club threw fire and the Volé Ballet Club danced with the Penn State men's lacrosse team.
Some parade participants injected the parade with activism, with messages like "We are ... Flu Safe" and "Remember the Recycler Within."
The Homecoming Court members and Grand Marshal Valerie Plame Wilson rolled through the parade in open-roof convertibles, while Penn State President Graham Spanier threw candy to the crowd from atop a bale of hay.
The undefeated 1947 Penn State football team rode through the parade on a bus covered by a banner that read "Champions of Social Justice."
Some groups played off Saturday's Homecoming matchup against the Minnesota Gophers. Members of one alumni chapter called themselves "gopher busters," with members wearing costumes mirroring the movie Ghostbusters and hunting others in gopher costumes. Another group played off the game "whack-a-mole," with one member holding a fake mallet and chasing another in a gopher suit.
The Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon's float trailed at the end of the parade with a banner announcing the Thon 2010 theme: "Love Belongs Here."
Catherine Sweitzer (senior-nutrition and geography) said she enjoyed watching her last parade as an undergraduate student.
"We're seniors," she said. "It's our last Homecoming -- it's our last opportunity to do it."