College of Nursing Rides Float to First-Place Finish in Homecoming Parade

Despite an unexpected gust of wind, the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing demonstrated flexibility and quick thinking to take first place in the university’s annual Homecoming Parade hosted by the UC Alumni Association Saturday. 

This was the fourth year the College of Nursing participated in the Homecoming Parade to build teamwork and camaraderie among faculty, staff, students and alumni, and was the third float entered by the college.

Just three minutes prior to the 12:30 p.m. parade start, however, a strong wind gust snapped the PVC-pipe spine of the bearcat constructed as the float’s focal point, jeopardizing the more than 60 hours that 17 College of Nursing faculty and staff members and 106 students invested in the float’s design and construction. The float’s creators, who hadn’t intended on riding the float during the parade, had to act fast or risk losing the message they designed the float to portray.

Eric Price, CATER (Center for Academic Technology & Educational Resources) helpdesk coordinator and technical director of the float, and Kelsey Trusty, College of Nursing CATER helpdesk student worker and third-year information technology student at the College of Education, Criminal Justice and Human Services, hopped on the float to stabilize the bearcat. 

"The only reason we were on the float was because the bearcat snapped in half right above the waist prior to the start of the parade,” Trusty said about joining Price for the ride aboard the float during the parade. She also helped with float construction.

The float-riding duo made do using an umbrella, which they used to re-stabilize the bearcat’s fractured PVC-pipe spine. Trusty then supported the bearcat’s lower body, holding the break while Price supported the bearcat’s head and upper body. To Price’s surprise, the bearcat’s head, which was originally designed to rotate on its own with the wind, served to be more effective broken.

"It actually turned out to be one of the cooler features, because while I was on the float and my hand was inside the head, I was able to turn the head back and forth so that it would face the left and right,” Price says. "So it looked like it was designed to be animated even though it was just an accident.”

More than quick thinking and an umbrella went into Price and Trusty’s 10-minute cruise down Clifton Avenue. Sixty feet of PVC piping, 50 carriage bolts, three pounds of drywall screws, 250 cable ties, three gallons of paint, two rolls of gaffer’s tape, 520 square feet of chicken wire, 30 square yards of grass matting, 20 square yards of black skirting and 14,400 pieces of hand-folded tissue paper. Even Student Affairs helped with recruiting students to help construct the float.

About two and a half weeks prior to the parade, after a brief brainstorming session, Price and Jennifer St. John, fifth-year nursing student and lead student float technician, designed the float to resemble a bearcat scoring against the University of Connecticut Huskies – the Bearcats homecoming opponent – in front of a large bearcat paw, which simulated the tunnel that UC football players exit at the start of each football game. A stencil of Nippert Stadium was also painted onto the side of the float above the college’s catchphrase, "UC Nurses. We See Leaders.” 

Float construction began Oct. 17 at Procter Hall’s loading dock, located outside of the building’s west wing. Work continued late into Friday evening the night before the parade with Price finishing the float Saturday morning. 

College of Nursing faculty, staff, students and alumni joined the float passing out treats to parade bystanders.

"It was a lot of work for 10 minutes, but it was worth it,” says Price who led the float’s design and construction. "It was a lot of fun.”

Price wasn’t the only person to believe the nursing college’s float was well worth the effort invested in its design and construction. Judges deemed the float worthy of the $500 first-place prize based on its overall impression, incorporation of the football team’s homecoming game opponent, the homecoming theme, "The Cats Are Back In Town,” mechanics and color.

Price and Trusty returned the front-runner float to its original building site Saturday following the parade to start disassembling it, a process the team didn’t finish until Monday evening.

Greer Glazer, dean of the College of Nursing, was ecstatic to learn of the float’s success. 

"Participating in the Homecoming Parade is definitely an opportunity to bring our team together and be part of the greater UC community. However, in health care and education, you have to be flexible because often things don’t go as planned,” says Glazer. "I’m proud of this example of leadership and flexibility being demonstrated by UC’s College of Nursing.”

Story by student writer Katie Coburn