By Ryan Broderick, Editor-at-Large

Opening the 2009 Homecoming festivities was the parade of floats representing clubs and Greek Life on campus. The organizations spent the week prior building the floats in the Student Center and on Saturday, October 10, they joined the Homecoming Court and the Pep Band and toured them around campus.

The parade started on the residential side of campus, closest to Oak Street. Joining the University’s various fraternities and sororities were campus radio station WRHU, Danceworks, GROOVE, Students For A Greener Hofstra and The Progressive Students Union (PSU).

This year’s Homecoming theme was “Myths and Legends.” GROOVE, Students For A Greener Hofstra, and PSU worked on a float whose theme was “The Myth Of Global Warming.”

Danceworks and Theta Tau, the University’s engineering fraternity, made one of the more intricate floats, based on Atlantis. Robert DiSanza of Theta Tau commented on the float’s construction. “Everyone put in a lot of time. I had people all day there with me working from 9 to 11 straight through.”

Of the seemingly incongruous coupling of Danceworks and an engineering frat, DiSanza said, “It was a great time, we all had a great time hanging out with each other. The girls [in Danceworks] taught some of the guys how to dance, we taught them how to build and drill, they were cutting stuff, it really worked out well.”

As the parade moved down Hempstead Turnpike, it met with more onlookers from the community. The parade came to a rest at James M. Shuart Stadium where each group put on a skit for the audience of students, family members and alumni.

This year was the 7th homecoming for Alumnus John Ryan, class of 1987. “It’s always fun. It’s great to see that there are a lot of people that are still here, a great turn out for the event.”

Student organizations PSU, Groove and Students for a Greener Hofstra during their presentation in the 2009 Homecoming Parade. (Caitlyn Gilvary/The Chronicle)