Friday, February 12th, 2010

Many people on campus became enthusiastic New Orleans Saints fans on Super Bowl Sunday, and two days Lawrence Tech students, faculty, and staff tried to capture the carnival spirit of New Orleans by staging a Mardi Gras parade a week early in the snow.

Ten campus groups turned golf carts into elaborate and in some cases supersized floats at Ridler Field House and then formed a caravan to parade through the quad and into the atrium of the Buell Building.

The Sigma Pi fraternity led the way with a military vehicle that ran into some unexpected resistance from the sliding doors into the atrium. The doors may have won the battle, but the students emerged triumphant.

As a New Orleans native, Dean Glen LeRoy of the College of Architecture and Design was more than willing to lend the parade a touch of authenticity with his parasol that would have fit right in on Bourbon Street.

Anne Adamus, Sofia Lulgjuraj and Christian Forrest of the Marketing and Public Affairs office served as judges for the float contest. The Sigma Phi Epsilon float took first place with its beach theme, and the Sigma Pi float was awarded second despite considerable damage.

The festivities then moved to Café Lawrence for some Cajun cuisine and a crawfish eating contest won by Caleb Fletcher, another transplant from New Orleans who was happy to give the assembled northerners a lesson in the culinary arts as practiced in the Crescent City.

Tweet