Nicolette Rojo
Staff Writer
Hundreds of University of La Verne students, faculty, alumni and local residents celebrated the annual Homecoming student float parade Saturday between B and C Street.
Clubs, Greek organizations and departments held activities at their booths, which were designed to fit the Homecoming of Angels theme, while showcasing what they have to offer on campus.
Students displayed their booths and floats that represented popular tourist spots in Los Angeles.
The parade consisted of handcrafted floats from student clubs and organizations, including the debate team, Sigma Kappa sorority, Psi Chi Honor Society, International Student Organization and Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.
The floats concluded the Homecoming festivities as student club representatives walked to C Street following the Bonita High School pep band and color guard, President Devorah Lieberman and current and past Homecoming Courts.
Bob Dyer, alumnus class of ’68, said that he always attends the parades not only for his love of the bands, but also to catch up with fellow alumni in his class.
“I like bands and music, waving to the president and her husband and seeing people I know is pretty fun,” Dyer said. “I’m a regular, so I’ll keep coming back. I’m a Leo for life.”
Mary Kate Ogden, also class of ’68, enjoyed bringing back Steve Morgan, president emeritus, to celebrate their 50th year reunion.
“It was a lot of fun to bring Steve Morgan back as the associated student body president for the class of 1968, 50 years ago,” Ogden said. “He’s much respected as president emeritus of the University of La Verne but we wanted to celebrate him as part of our class.”
Ogden is also on the alumni planning committee for Homecoming and helped plan Homecoming weekend.
“We meet, talk, think about what worked well last year and seek to make improvements,” Ogden said. “We honor the decades of alumni, students new to La Verne and their parents to give them more information on what’s being studied and what their expectations can be.”
Fourteen clubs participated in the parade and many students proudly represented their individual organizations.
Senior speech communication major Zoe Meshenberg participated as a tribute and way to give back to the A Cappella Barbershop Club.
“We really wanted to do justice for the club because it has done so much for us,” Meshenberg said. “We felt it was really important to make tributes to everything we could and it’s senior year.”
Deliena Paschal, senior double major in music and education, said she enjoyed the crowd’s cheering as she helped Meshenberg walk their Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine float.
“The best part was the cheers from everybody as we’re walking because we worked hard and it shows,” Paschal said. “It was worth it.”
For many organizations, the parade was an opportunity to showcase their hard work on their floats.
It was also a competition amongst each other since ASULV awarded a first-place prize of $900 to the organization with the most creative float.
The Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology Club came in first place for their depiction of a mammoth found in the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum, which is made of paper mâché except for its spine.
“I’m really happy that all of the effort paid off and that our club is doing well, especially that it’s such a large department,” said Miriam Rangel, senior anthropology major. “We have a lot of majors, so it’s nice to see people come together, putting a lot of effort into something.”
Sophomore accounting major Adam Betancourt highlighted the Makerspace Club’s teamwork and collaboration of ideas toward their third place Last Bookstore themed float.
“Our president gave us the blueprints and the plans, Betancourt said. “We all inspired each other and put new things together,” Betancourt said.
“Greeting people and spreading awareness about our club during the parade was really nice.”
Nicolette Rojo can be reached at nicolette.rojo@laverne.edu.
