Among the many events that take place during the week and day of Homecoming, one of the largest and most observed contests is the float competition.
Sarah Reese, senior, is a member of Phi Mu and the sorority’s Homecoming chair. Phi Mu has paired up with Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity for their Homecoming competition. The chosen theme for their float is Operation. The iconic board game has been created from pomping, manipulated tissue paper placed and molded to create shapes.
“We bought over 30 cases of pomp,” Reese said. “We rolled and placed about 240,000 pieces.”
Phi Mu and SAE also used plywood and a small amount of cardboard for detail. SAE’s homecoming chairs and Reese have been planning for the float since September. Their organizations officially started working towards the end of that month.
Ben Orban, a senior member of Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity, paired with Delta Gamma to create a float theme from the game Mouse Trap. Their float consists mainly of wood and paper, like pomping.
“We have at least $700 worth of pomping put into the float,” Orban said.
SigEp and DG have also worked on their float for about a month. This year, pomping is the main technique being used on floats.
There is a lot of paper used on these floats which can create a fire hazard. Each organization that creates a float has to follow the same rules as the other.
“We worked to make everything on our float fire retardant because that’s a rule TAB stresses for safety,” Reese said.
Along with the floats being fire retardant, other rules explain the floats have to be built on one trailer and cannot be over 13-feet tall. Also, no one will be throwing candy into the crowd as a rule of safety to protect parade watchers. The full list of rules can be found in the Homecoming packet online at tntech.edu/homecoming.
