SEMO homecoming set for this week

Southeast Missourian

Southeast Missouri State University will celebrate its homecoming this week with an international "bridge to the world" theme.

Homecoming festivities are scheduled to start Thursday and extend through the weekend.

Highlighting homecoming will be the annual parade on Saturday and the presentation of Merit and Distinguished Service awards, school officials said.

Festivities will begin Friday at 9 a.m. in the Dearmont Quadrangle with cooking demonstrations by Mariko Yoshiya, host of a Japanese cooking show.

Don and Jerry McNeely and Jane McNeely Squire Bruns will discuss their careers in stage, television and film at noon at the Rose Theatre.

The school's alumni association will present the annual Merit Awards at the Copper Dome Society/Merit Award Dinner at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the Show Me Center.

The evening will end with the "Pep Rally Stroll" to take in the nightlife of downtown Cape Girardeau. Alumni may meet at Buckner Brewing Co. at the corner of Broadway and Main Street at 10 p.m., or join the stroll at one of its many stops downtown, school officials said.

An alumni breakfast Saturday is scheduled to start at 7:30 a.m. in the Student Recreation Center South Campus at 926 Broadway, and then the homecoming parade will get underway at 9:30 a.m. at the corner of Broadway and West End Boulevard.

A large tailgate party is scheduled to be held outside Houck Stadium from 11 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Other tailgate parties include the Southeast Booster Club at 11 a.m. at the Houck Stadium Booster Corral and the Baptist Student Union Tailgate Party at the Baptist Student Center, 909 Normal Ave.

Nina Swan-Kohler will be promoting her cookbook, "Tailgates to Touchdowns," and will teach a cooking class at 11 a.m. in the Dearmont kitchen lab. There is a cost for the class. Contact Swan-Kohler at swankohler@cs.com to register.

The homecoming football game will take place at 1 p.m. in Houck Stadium as Southeast takes on University of Tennessee-Martin.

After the football game, several events are planned. The newly renovated Marquette Hotel building in downtown Cape Girardeau will be the site for the Seventy-Five Plus Party/Abe's Boys Reunion. Alumni age 75 and older, and former players of coach Abe Stuber are encouraged to attend the reunion which starts at 4 p.m.

On Sunday, the university will hold the "Everything New in Cape Girardeau" bus tour. The tour, led by history professor Dr. Frank Nickell, will feature the Emerson Bridge, River Campus, Water Street murals, Marquette Hotel and other sites. The 9:30 a.m. tour starts at the Wehking Alumni Center. Reservations are necessary.

The alumni association will hold a free continental breakfast Sunday at 10 a.m. at the Johnson Faculty Center.

The day will conclude with the dedication at 1 p.m. of the new state-of-the-art campus greenhouse at the corner of Old Sprigg Street Road and Bertling Street.