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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2011
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PARADE
A group of sorority members work on constructing a float for homecoming in 1965. That year's theme was "Hawkers History."
SPENCER RESEARCH LIBRARY
Students sacrifice sleep for perfect floats
NATALIE PARKER
editor@kansan.com
Before many students even realize that it's Homecoming Week, members of some campus organizations are already hard at work on plans for their floats.
A few weeks before the parade, the Homecoming chairwomen of sororities meet with members from
their partner fraternities. Together, the groups start planning the design of the float and discuss how it will fit the year's homecoming theme. This year, floats will be based on the theme "From Lawrence, With Love."
As a parade chairwoman, Chelsea Stieb, a senior from Sringfield, Mo, helps create the parade line-up and approves float designs submitted by the participating organizations. Because there aren't any rigid guidelines for the theme, Steib said that most floats get approved.
Danielle Fuhrman, a senior from Tulsa, Okla., and a member of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority homecoming committee, said brainstorming is a large part of the planning process.
"We all just throw out ideas and
decide together what we think would stand out," Fuhrman said. "We don't want to do something that a lot of other groups might do."
Fuhrman also said she appreciates that the theme is open to interpretation, which provides an opportunity for organizations to show their creativity.
the theme kind of open-ended because the floats probably won't be similar," Fuhrman said. "It's interesting to see how people perceive the theme and make it theirs."
After that, Fuhrman said the chairmen and women delegate much of the work based upon the skills people have.
Two committee members with whom Fuhrman is working are
studying architecture, which made them very valuable while sketching the float design.
"We know who's good at building, who's good at designing and just try to get a lot of people involved," said Fuhman.
After plans are drawn, the chairmen and women obtain a trailer, which is usually borrowed. Around the same time, members order supplies, including many colors of "pomps."