Annual Homecoming parade presented by the UW Alumni Association in connection with the WYO-GOLD Student Alumni Association occurring Saturday morning.
The theme of Homecoming 2017 is “Wyoming Spirit: Wild as the West” and a lot of the focus will be on recognizing distinguished alumni of the school, many of whom will be featured in the homecoming parade Saturday, Oct. 28 at 9:30 a.m.
“We will be featuring alum Mimi [Dr. Mary C.] Fenton, she’s been acknowledged as one of the Distinguished Alumni of 2017 and she will ride in a car,” head of the UW English Department, Peter Parolin, said.
Fenton will be riding in the car alongside her two daughters and the UW English Department has decided to march with her.
“We have an ‘English loves Mimi’ banner and then we’ve invited children from our department and students from our department, as well as faculty, to be part of the parade.” Parolin said.
He hopes that those involved will choose to dress up as literary characters, especially the younger children who have their own favorite characters in books.
They expect about 20 to 30 people if weather proves to be good, which Parolin hopes it does. Though snow is not expected on Saturday, people should still come prepared.
“It wouldn’t be a homecoming without snow,” Lieutenant Gwen Smith of the Laramie Police Department said.
The Laramie Police Department will be taking weather complications into account along with extra traffic coming in for the game later in the day.
The route for the parade starts on 9th street and Ivinson and continues down Ivinson to 3rd Street where it will take a turn onto Grand Avenue and then follow Grand Avenue back up to 13th Street.
The Laramie Police Department states that the streets will be closed just in front of the parade, and opened back up once the parade clears the intersection on the Grand Avenue side.
Though there has been concern about weather conditions, others are not too worried. Bryan Raya, the director of the Western Thunder Marching Band is optimistic about the weather on Saturday.
“I looked at the forecast and I know it’s a little snowy today but it said it should be okay, it should be cleared up in the low 40s,” Raya said. “I think we’ll be okay, our uniforms are warm and we have overcoats so if we need to put those extra layers on, we can.”
He will be directing the whole Western Thunder Marching Band during the parade where they will feature the songs “Downfield” and the University’s fight song. In between the two songs there will be several drum cadences.
In accordance with featuring University Alumni the band will also be sharing the field later in the day with a band alum who will be playing with them during half time. During the parade, however, the two groups will be separate.
“The Alumni band actually has a float.” Raya said. “They’re meeting our band around 8 a.m. before the parade for a little breakfast gathering and then they’ll go off and get staged for their float and we’ll get staged for ours.”
There will be a variety of floats representing different departments of the University who are celebrating the spirit of Wyoming and their specific alumni as well as everyone else’s.
“I think you always want to represent your unit well, so we don’t have a ‘float’ but we have a presence,” Parolin said. “This is a great opportunity to sort of come together and celebrate your unit and say, ‘we’re great, we have something to offer.’”
