Homecoming parade celebrates sustainability

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A foot-powered float and a giant fish sculpture comprised of laundry detergent bottles rolled down Grand River Avenue on Friday as symbols of school spirit and environmental awareness.

The pair were components of MSU’s Homecoming parade, which followed this
year’s Homecoming theme of promoting environmentally friendly measures that event organizers hope will raise further awareness of such issues.

About 150 entrants from the university and city participated in the parade, which has been in the works since early spring, said Regina Cross, the parade’s organizer and an MSU alumna. She said the number of entrants this year is about the average that turn out each year.

Among the entrants were the MSU Surplus Store and Recycling Center, whose float featured a bale of recyclable materials where hay would normally be used, and other floats primarily made of recycled or recyclable materials. A number of recycling trucks and hybrid vehicles also were part of Friday’s procession. The theme also adhered to MSU’s Be Spartan Green initiatives, which are aimed at heightening environmental stewardship.

“We just felt it was fitting,” Cross said.

“We’ve always been green, so we just thought it was a perfect theme for our Homecoming parade.”

Public health graduate student Leigh Gasworth, a parade marshal, said he was glad the theme promoted initiatives being headed up by MSU.

“It’s good to promote that kind of thing, especially because that’s what MSU is all about,” he said.

Some parade-goers praised the theme’s double meaning of promoting both green initiatives and school spirit and said they hoped it would inspire people to be more conscious of recycling and eco-friendly measures.

“I think it’s great,” said Trudy Wesley, a Grand Ledge resident and administrative assistant for the dean of the College of Social Science. “I’m hoping that it’s going to raise some more awareness.”

Whitney First, a parade marshal and human biology freshman, said the theme should encourage people to think more about reducing negative environmental impacts.

“I think it’s really good and (people not) recycling is becoming a very big problem,” First said.

“I think it will be very beneficial.”

Cross said aside from encouraging people to adopt green initiatives in their own lives, the parade serves its necessary function of rekindling old ties and raising school spirit.

“There’s just so much electricity in the air,” Cross said. “You see people you haven’t seen in a while and it just makes it nice.”

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