Kelly Rulison
Copy Editor
Lewis and Clark Community College’s “Bringing Careers to Life” float won third place in the clubs and organizations category at the 100th Annual Alton Halloween Parade.
“I think L&C’s float placed third because of the all of the awesome volunteers who showed up for the parade, the hard work by employees to construct the float and the vision put forth by those involved in coming up with the concept. Plus, the float’s band, which was comprised of L&C talent, was amazing,” Media Specialist Louise Jett said.
L&C had roughly 30-40 volunteers show up to help out in this year’s parade. There were several different jobs for different groups of volunteers; Music Professor Peter Hussey played drums on the float, students from different clubs as well as some local kids were on the float throwing out candy, and there were wheel walkers making sure none of the kids and parade goers literally threw themselves under the bus for some candy.
“I think with the band and drivers, in addition to actors and wheel walkers, we had between 30-40. This is also the first year we had two floats in the parade, so it would have looked like a lot more. Welding Coordinator Travis Jumper drove the welding truck in front of us and had quite a few volunteers of his own,” Media Services Manager Laura Inlow said.
A flatbed semi truck was used as the base of L&C’s float. From there, it was constructed and designed to look as creepy and L&C themed as possible.
“There’s always a pretty tight turnaround, since we borrow the flatbed. We have about a week from the time it arrives to the time it is featured in the parade. We start the planning and any building that we can (like the tombstones) before that,” Inlow said.
The construction of the float started with Maintenance and Media and Creative Services giving direction on what pieces get mounted where.
Maintenance mounted decorations, such as the tombstones and the coffin, on the flatbed and made sure the entire set was safe to be on for the volunteers.
“Their craftsmanship really is superb, but more importantly, they make sure that the float can make the trip from storage to Broadway in one piece and that it is as safe as possible for all of our volunteers,” Inlow said.
For more information on the float or L&C winning third place in the Alton Halloween parade, contact Media Services Manager, Laura Inlow at linlow@lc.edu.
