People of all ages congregated on the streets of Muncie to watch Ball State University's Homecoming parade Saturday morning.
University Singers' float was the overall winner in the judging competition.
The parade began at 9:30 a.m. at Muncie Central High School and ended about two hours later at the intersection of McKinley and Neely avenues.
More than 150 units from Ball State and the Muncie community were scheduled to participate in the parade, Michelle Johnson, Homecoming Steering Committee adviser, said.
"[The parade] is a time that the university and the community can get together and celebrate what Ball State has brought to the community and to showcase what the community has to offer," Asher Lisec, Homecoming Steering Committee parade chairwoman, said.
Sophomore advertising major Julie Nelson, a member of the American Advertising Federation's Homecoming committee, walked in the Homecoming Parade as part of the AAF, Public Relations Student Society of America and Cardinal Communications' celebrity-inspired parade entry.
Nelson and her eight fellow committee members dressed as celebrities such as Justin Timberlake and Jessica Simpson, public relations agents and paparazzi and rode in a red Toyota pick-up truck, which was on loan to them from Toyota of Muncie, she said.
Nelson, who was a pseudo-paparazzo, got out of the truck to pretend to snap pictures of the celebrity impersonators.
"We kind of associated our clubs in with the whole theme of the float," she said. "We also wanted to do something that was just funny; people like funny."
AAF members started making plans for the parade about two weeks in advance and were still putting their the finishing touches on their truck Saturday morning, Nelson said.
The crowd downtown was mostly families and children, she said.
"A lot of parents forced their little kids to wave," Nelson said. "Most of the kids were screaming for candy and saying 'Go BSU.' They were rowdy and ran after the truck."
The Village was packed with the most college students, she said.
"The students were the most into it," Nelson said. "They were the ones wanting to take pictures with Justin [Timberlake, the impersonator] and yelling 'Dance for me.'"
The students were the first spectators to recognize the truck's celebrity concept, she said.
Nelson said she is glad she got involved with Homecoming this year.
"It was a lot of fun, and I got to know a lot of people in [AAF] that I probably wouldn't have gotten to know otherwise," she said.
Judge Mary Ange Cooksey, a former Ball State faculty member, said she was impressed with the parade entrants.
"It was a great parade," Cooksey said. "It was one of the best organized. Chelsea and Stephanie [Homecoming Steering Committee members] did an excellent job."
Cooksey said her favorite float was the Caribbean Student Association for its creativity.
"They were so colorful, original and enthusiastic," Cooksey said. "They obviously put a lot of work into their presentation. They really rolled out the red."
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