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Bud Billiken Parade
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact: Dana Navarro
August 6, 2008 (773) 442-4227
d-navarro@neiu.edu
Northeastern Illinois University to Participate
in the 79th Annual Bud Billiken Parade
WHERE: Northeastern Illinois University will join the 79th Annual Bud Billiken Parade with a float that will feature music and highlight the University’s values.
WHERE: The Parade will start at 31st Street and Michigan Avenue and end in Washington Park on Chicago’s South Side.
WHEN: Saturday, August 9 at 10 a.m.
DETAILS: The theme of NEIU’s float will reflect the University’s values: Integrity, Excellence, Access to Opportunity, Diversity, Community, and Empowerment through Learning, which will be displayed on banners decorating the float.
Seated on the float will be NEIU President Sharon Hahs, Grace Dawson, member, NEIU Board of Trustees; Conrad Worrill, director, Jacob H. Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies (CCICS); and Murrell Duster, dean, academic development.
Also on the float will be members of the NEIU Gospel Choir, who will perform for the parade.
Marching alongside the float will be members of the University community, including student organizations from CCICS and NEIU’s main campus.
The Bud Billiken Parade began in 1929 as a celebration of unity and diversity for Chicago’s youth. The parade’s name was based on a fictional character created in 1923 by Robert Abbot, founder of the Chicago Defender. Abbot invented Bud Billiken based the Chinese mythological “Billiken,” who is said to be the guardian angel of youth.
The parade draws over a million spectators each year and is broadcast to more than 25 million viewers across the nation. Past participants have included U.S. President Harry S. Truman, Mayor Richard M. Daley, U.S. Senator Barrack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Billy Holiday, Duke Ellington, Spike Lee, and L.L. Cool J.
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