By RAY SMITH ([email protected])

Allegheny Student Government is branching out into the community once again, this time making their presence known by entering a float into the Meadville Halloween parade.

“President Mullen asked us to design the float,” said Director of Student Voting and Assistant Director of Public Relations Stephanie Albert, ‘10. “He offered to pay for the endeavor, and ASG decided to fulfill his wish.”

This idea has been in the works for many months, since President Mullen approached ASG President Brett Fuchs about being a part of the parade.

According to the Meadville Tribune, the parade is being billed as the largest nighttime parade in Pennsylvania. The event is scheduled to have more than 130 units.

“Based on President Mullen’s promise to better integrate Allegheny with the Meadville community, he thought that a float in the parade would be a great way for Allegheny to spread Halloween cheer to the children of Meadville,” Albert said.

The parade will begin at 6:30 p.m. on North St, according to the Meadville Halloween Parade web site. The theme of the parade is “Wild West”, and the students had this in mind when designing the float.

“The float is a Conestoga wagon,” Albert said. “But the float does have Allegheny spirit. Chompers will be involved, and he will be wearing a cowboy hat.”

Entering a parade does involve some work on the part of the Allegheny students.

“We have been working on the float for three weeks now, up at Robertson,” Albert said. “It’s almost done. Physical Plant was nice enough to loan us the space up there to try and get it done.”

Even though the float is designed by ASG, it will be representing the college student body as a whole.

Amelia Conte, ’10, attended the parade last year with some friends.

“The parade was very cold last year but there definitely were some cool floats,” Conte said. “The people in the floats threw out a lot of candy.”

The billing as the largest nighttime parade in Northwestern Pennsylvania is not just for show.

“It was really long,” Conte said. “We were down there for at least an hour. But it was definitely entertaining with all of the lights on the floats.”

Perhaps the addition of an Allegheny face would help draw more students downtown for the Wild West festival.

“President Mullen will be on the float,” Albert said. “We’ll be handing out candy to kids along the parade route.”

Conte encourages students to participate in this annual community gathering.

“I would recommend going to the parade to students because it is a Meadville tradition,” Conte said. “And it is the biggest nighttime parade in Pennsylvania.

There are many reasons for the college to get involved in the community’s festival.

“I think this is a great way to interact with the whole community and a great way to positively get the college’s name out there,” Albert said.

Students are encouraged to walk downton to watch the parade with members of the Meadville community this weekend.