As MU prepares for Homecoming, some students are putting their creative skills to good use. Students from various organizations, including fraternities and sororities, are working diligently to craft floats for the MU Homecoming Parade. This year, the floats will all be movie themed.

Mason Karpinske, head float liaison for Alpha Kappa Lambda, helped to put AKL’s “Grease” float plan into motion.

“There’s gonna be a Ferris wheel that’s gonna be moving,” Karpinske said. “There’s gonna be a dunk tank as well, with Truman dunking Ole Miss’ mascot.”

Making a float with working electronics takes a lot of work and a lot of time. Karpinske thinks that the hard work is worth it in order to be a part of an MU tradition.

“Towards the end, it’s 40-hour weeks working on the float, but it’s all for a good cause [and] it’s good team building,” Karpinske said.

This isn’t Karpinske’s first time incorporating electronics into a float. Last year he led AKL in building a moving game of “Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots” as a float.

“We have high hopes that it’s going to be just as good, if not better,” Karpinske said.

Greek Houses aren’t the only student orgs that will have floats in the Homecoming Parade. Since 2016, organizations like the Catholic Student Association and the Alumni Association Student Board have crafted floats for the parade.

“We really want to make sure that the parade entries reflect the diversity of our campus and the community,” former Steering Committee tri-director Elle Miller said in an interview with Mizzou Mag.

As float liaison Olivia Land works on Phi Mu and Delta Kappa Epsilon’s “Up” themed float, she tries to incorporate not just the iconic house and Paradise Falls location, but also the iconic columns in front of Jesse Hall.

Land enjoys working on the float, even though she knows it will only be appreciated for a small amount of time during the parade.

“I wish there was some way for it to be appreciated more, but I think all the traditions that go along with Homecoming are really important to Mizzou and the community that we have here,” Land says. “Even though it doesn’t last a while … what would homecoming be without it?”

The floats will be on display Friday as part of Campus Decorations in Greek Town, before hitting the road to join the Homecoming parade on Saturday.

_Edited by Janae McKenzie | jmckenzie@themaneater.com_