Jon Gayer fell in love with the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s homecoming parade when he first started helping to organize it more than a decade ago.
Gayer has worked on the parade through more than one position at the university. He said when former Chancellor Ronnie Green wanted to elevate the event even more for the university’s 150th anniversary in 2019, it cemented his desire to be part of the parade organization for as long as he can.
“We were trying to do anything and everything to celebrate the 150th, and I never let go,” Gayer said. “I am all in. This is the one event I truly love because it’s a community event. It’s a chance for the community to see the university not through the headlines, but really the celebration of campus.”
Gayer, assistant director for alcohol and drug education at Campus Recreation, hopes to make a safer environment for students in his daily work, but also wants to create a memorable environment for the community through homecoming.
Gayer helped with parade preparation for the first time in 2015 while working for the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life. He said his favorite aspect is how the event highlights such a wide array of campus life.
“It showcases all cohorts,” he said. “We have student clubs, academic organizations, marching band, Spirit Squad. We’ve had theater groups on stilts. Tractor Restoration will be there. It’s a neat visual representation of the university. For 45 minutes, you can just watch a group of people who have put time and energy and effort into coming to Lincoln to display who they are.”
Planning for the parade begins months in advance. After the announcement of the football schedule, the planning group selects a weekend and quickly starts working with Nebraska Athletics and community and university partners. They start applying for the necessary permits and scheduling elements like traffic control, parking and security in the spring. The lineup for participants is set the week of the parade.
The hectic energy of the day begins at 8:30 a.m. with the arrival and distribution of golf carts for floats. Representatives pick them up and start to decorate shortly after. About 40 student volunteers meet that afternoon to plan for crowd control and other precautions.
Participants — more than 80 this year — begin lining up along R Street at about 4:30 p.m. It is two hours of shuffling people around to get entries in their assigned order and ready to roll, Gayer said. After being part of the process for more than a decade, Gayer said especially creative entries stick with him — like when a student entomology club created a giant spider float, the parade of world country flags from international students, or a fraternity that turned a golf cart into a “Back to the Future”-inspired DeLorean.
“It’s what I call happy chaos,” he said. “We see all the neat floats. There’s a bunch of pandemonium, and then we kick it off and there’s a moment of calm. All the planning is done and you get to see the fruits of your labor pass by you.”
In Gayer’s daily work, he also encourages a safe, healthy environment through his alcohol and drug education programming. He said his goal is to help students make smarter decisions and interact with substances like alcohol in a healthier way, especially by figuring out where to draw the line for their own behavior. He hopes it can help guide students through newfound independence.
“The goal is to create healthy environments that everyone respects and shares,” Gayer said. “If someone chooses not to drink and attends a party, they should feel just as comfortable having a non-alcoholic drink. And if someone has had too much to drink, students should know where to turn for help and feel comfortable getting that help."
Gayer relishes being part of a team that contributes to a relaxing moment for so many people of all ages through the homecoming parade. It gives attendees a short time to be in community with others, and he enjoys seeing how that creates moments for them, especially children who are amazed by a large tractor going by or who get candy from students walking the route. That same sense of community can be seen among Husker students as they cheer for friends and classmates passing by in the parade.
“Your work has connected a memory and you hope that connection sticks and one day when they grow up they will share that connection with their kid,” Gayer said.
