Homecoming brings alumni back Mount Pleasant

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Homecoming is an event touching much more than the campus itself.

Many alumni come back into the city of Mount Pleasant to celebrate their alma mater’s biggest event of the year.

“I think it is a positive event for both the city and the university,” said City Commissioner Kathleen Ling.

She said the Homecoming parade brings the university and the city together, showcasing some of the city’s most prominent businesses as well as registered student organizations from Central Michigan University.

Paul Sullivan, Homecoming committee parade chair and Lincoln Park senior, said there will be more than 50 participants in the parade, including many RSOs such as Program Board, College Democrats, Kappa Kappa Psi and several others.

Among the businesses participating are Halloween Central, The Pixie and Zuker Towing.

“The parade is good because it really gets the day started,” Sullivan said. “It goes all the way from campus to downtown.”

There is a good response from businesses around town to every year’s homecoming and that the community has always been very receptive to the Homecoming Parade and subsequent events, he said.

“This year we have over 50 participants in the parade, both from the university and from businesses from around town,” Sullivan said.

Alumni visiting

Many alumni come back and revisit their alma mater and take part in college-age festivities.

Adam Graham, a 2000 CMU alumnus, said his past two Homecoming adventures were so intense that he and his group of friends are taking a year off to “regroup and … come back in 2011 and do it up real big.”

Graham said he has never celebrated Homecoming in the traditional ways.

“I think I went to one quarter of one football game during my collegiate career,” he said. “What I did the last two years is come up on Friday and get together with some friends and then hit The Bird and hit it hard.”

He compared CMU Homecoming to a weekend in Las Vegas.

“You don’t want to over stay your welcome,” he said. “You have to quit while you’re ahead.”