By Marisa Young | Staff Writer

While Baylor’s Homecoming Parade promotes a vibrant sense of community, it also stirs fierce competition among Greek organizations.

The floats that glide effortlessly down 5th Street are a result of almost a year of intricate planning and preparation, according to Grand Prairie senior and Tau Kappa Epsilon Float Chair Luke Cortez.

“I was working on it probably since January, looking up themes and designs and drawing up rough drafts of what we thought would be a good float idea,” Cortez said. “And then in February, TKE had our pair confirmed, and that’s when we really got to jump in.”

In the spirit of collaboration, many Greek organizations pair up to build a shared float. Cortez said he sees much benefit in this choice, as it ultimately brings more skills to the table as well as hands to the float site.

“One of the big pros of collaborating is the design process,” Cortez said. “Our pair has done float for a long time. TKE didn’t do float last year, so we’re coming in fresh.”

St. Louis junior Patrick Meehan said his initial step as the Kappa Sigma Float Chair was to brainstorm ideas with Kappa Sigma’s sorority pair.

“In the beginning, with all of us working together, we each pitched our own idea for a float, so we probably had around 10 or 12 ideas,” Meehan said. “From there, we developed them out and then narrowed it down to our final three designs, and then we all voted on which one we wanted to do, and then we fully completed that design.”

The finalized design must be submitted to the Chamber of Commerce for theme and risk management approval, according to the Baylor Homecoming Parade Handbook. Once it gets approved, the float’s construction commences at a secret location.

Hundreds of hours of work go into each float, according to Cortez. Members spend their shifts building and sanding down structures, painting details or pomping: filling in the holes of chicken wire with squares of colored tissue paper to create designs of mass scale.

Cortez said his team organizes members to play to their strengths when constructing the float.

“Some of our guys are a lot more gifted with building, some of them are more gifted with some arts and creativity, so it just depends what their fortes are and what they like to do,” Cortez said.

Houston junior Reagan Yarborough said her sorority, Tri Delta, has a task-oriented approach to accomplishing their float.

“Tri Delt has the float chair and the float committee, and then the rest of the chapter is the task force,” Yarborough said.

Win or lose, each organization’s float represents hours of hard work, creativity and collaboration on the part of Greek life members. As they carve their annual path around campus on homecoming, those who have put in the work expressed pride over their creations.

Yarborough said she fell in love with float when she saw Tri Delta’s float in the parade her freshman year.

“I’m excited; I love doing float,” Yarborough said. “Knowing that you’re representing something fills you with pride, because your whole team has worked on it.”

Likewise, Saturday morning will bring a mix of nerves and excitement for Meehan, but he said he anticipates showing off the hard work.

“We’ve been working on our float really hard, and so getting to show it off in front of the whole school will be really fun to do,” Meehan said.