The rhythm of Charleston was in full swing Saturday morning as the Panther Marching Band led hundreds of parade members through the city streets, kicking off the final day of the 2025 EIU Homecoming celebrations.
“Boogie With Billy” was the theme of this year’s homecoming week, and Saturday’s parade featured dozens of floats playing music with both students and onlookers dancing along.
On-campus groups made up the majority of the parade. This included fraternities and sororities as well as the Association of International Students, who carried flags representing the home countries of students.
Local businesses also got involved, keeping in touch with tradition by throwing candy into the crowds lining Seventh Street on the way toward the town square.
Charleston Fire Department Engine 308 led the parade, and additional firefighters staged near the route. Both Charleston Police and EIU Police assisted with traffic control and crowd safety.
While the annual homecoming parade is always a community-involved event, EIU President Jay Gatrell said that the collaboration with the city was as big as ever this year.
“This takes literally dozens of people,” Gatrell said. “We partnered with the parks and rec for the run in the morning, not to mention the hundreds of students, hundreds of volunteers. It’s an all-hands-on-deck activity.”
The American Legion was near the front of the parade. Army veteran Bob Carpenter, who served for three years, said that it was their role to represent the heroes in the community.
“We gave up years of youth to serve this beautiful country, this city,” Carpenter said. “So we’re here to represent as veterans, to bring the university and the community together as one.”
The parade began at Seventh and Lincoln and moved north toward the town square. After looping around the Coles County Courthouse, the parade went south on Fifth Street and then west on Polk Avenue. Finally, the parade went south on Division Street and ended near the entrance to O’Brien Field.
The hour-and-a-half parade demonstrated a community-wide event.
For Cerissa Gherardini and her young son, the parade is an opportunity for free candy, she jokingly said, but also an opportunity to feel a part of something bigger.
“It’s a community,” Gherardini said. “You get to see people you don’t normally see. It adds that element to day-to-day life.”
For some, the annual homecoming parade feels like something much more than just an event.
Tammy Baines has sat in the exact same patch of grass watching the floats pass by for decades. First, with her grandparents as a kid, and then with her parents too, until her mother’s death.
This year, she returned to the very same spot with her husband to keep the tradition alive.
“I haven’t had [my husband] with me [at the parade] in probably 30 years. I usually come here every year with my parents. It’s always been a family tradition,” Baines said.
As the parade continued throughout the city, the number of families lining the streets grew larger, with some even joining in with the marching band’s performance of the fight song, the soundtrack that accompanied the ongoing procession.
EIU’s marching band wasn’t the only ensemble in the parade. Toward the end of the pack was the Charleston High School Marching Trojans, with Band Director John Wengerski saying it was a great opportunity for the band to perform while giving back to the community.
“I love getting involved,” Wengerski said. “While it’s Eastern’s homecoming, it’s also for Charleston, and so it’s important we show some face, show some spirit as well.”
Though the homecoming football game didn’t live up to the expectations of the morning that preceded it, the parade united Charleston through school spirit, community pride and shared tradition.
Ethan Vine can be reached at 581-2812 or ejvine@eiu.edu.
