By AnnaBelle Boone / The Jambar
Homecoming is a timeless tradition that sets campus on fire with fun activities and new ways for students to connect with one another.
Activities kickoff with Fall Fire Fest today at 7:30 p.m. in Youngstown State University’s M71 lot. There will be live music, food vendors and a homecoming pep rally around a bonfire.
Students can attend the Red & White Day Carnival on Friday at the YSU Foundation Heritage Park, which includes carnival games and balloon sculptures. Also, YSU will host the Silent Disco from 6–9 p.m. Friday in the Chestnut Room of Kilcawley Center.
Oct. 4 is also the opening day for “On the Verge” in Ford Theater at Bliss Hall. “On the Verge” centers on three explorers as they journey through uncharted lands.
At noon, Oct. 5, the YSU Homecoming parade begins on Fifth Avenue. It will feature floats prepared by student organizations, the YSU Marching Pride and more.
Capping off festivities is the Homecoming game. At halftime, Homecoming Royalty will be crowned.
Another main attraction of Homecoming is the parade. Spectators line Fifth Avenue to watch the floats as people come down the route.
Members of Zeta Tau Alpha and Theta Chi worked together to build one of the floats that will be in the Homecoming parade.
Gianna Howe, director of activities for ZTA, is in charge of planning and organizing its float for homecoming.
“Our theme is ‘Pete and Penny have disco fever.’ I was thinking like a John Travolta kind of vibe, since our overall theme is peace, love and penguins.” Howe said. “There’s a lot of manual labor. Right now we are pomping, which is stuffing like tissue paper through holes. It’s very time consuming.”
ZTA began its collaboration with the fraternity a few weeks earlier. Lucas Ulbricht is in his second year at YSU and said he recounted the early stages of float planning.
“We’ve been planning it for about two months,” said Ulbricht. “We just started working on it about two weeks ago.”
Meghan Crump, philanthropy chair for ZTA, said the creation of the float has brought the sorority closer together.
“Being a part of [ZTA], and getting to have homecoming with them, was really special for me,” Crump said. “It’s how a lot of us got close and got to meet a lot of the girls that we’re now sisters with.”
Karlos Giuidezan, vice president of Health and Safety of Theta Chi, said the fraternity members also became closer because of the float’s construction.
“We’ve gone through a lot of hills and bumps along the way, so it’s really brought us together. Building this float has taken time, so spending time with each other is always good,” Giuidezan said.
