As the fall air slowly creeps onto the Georgia Southern campus, the spirit of homecoming comes, too. Every year thousands of students, alumni, and community members gather to celebrate Georgia Southern at a multitude of events. 

One highlight of said events is the homecoming parade, which combines the Statesboro community, student organizations, and Georgia Southern Greek life. 

“I thought the homecoming parade was so fun,” said Chi Omega member Abby McKinney. “It was so amazing to see all of the creative Greek life floats, and all the local organizations. It was really great to be a part of the community and see some more parts of the other organizations on campus.”

The parade began in Downtown Statesboro near Morris Bank and continued down North Main Street to College Plaza. Those participating in the parade built decorative floats; any floats from Georgia Southern organizations matched the theme for this year’s homecoming: Sweet Southern. 

“Shout to our campus activities director Reign, she did an amazing job with all of the different parts of our float. We had the cotton candy, we had the sign, we had kind of where our candidates could stand. They all did such a great job putting it all together and getting all of the materials, so they all did a great job,” said Mckinney. 

For sororities and fraternities, the homecoming parade is a wonderful opportunity to campaign for their homecoming court candidates. Sororities and fraternities collaborate to push their respective members. 

“We got really lucky this year, we were partnered with an amazing fraternity Kappa Sig[ma], and it was really great. I think both of our groups worked together with tabling and making the homecoming float to kind of make the workload a little bit easier for the both of us, and to really show our partnership and collaboration,” said McKinney. 

The Duke and Duchess were crowned during the Sweet Heat True Blue BBQ & Tailgate on Thursday, while the King and Queen were announced during halftime at the homecoming game on Saturday.