MACHIAS — The University of Maine at Machias will celebrate Homecoming Weekend 1993 on Friday, Oct. 22, and Saturday, Oct., 23, with a variety of events including a parade, a Stage Front performance and athletic activities.

Homecoming brings together alumni and current students and staff members. While some of the weekend’s activities are restricted to past and present members of the campus community, many events, including the parade, stage performance and sporting activities, are open to the public.

Homecoming Weekend will kick off with a soccer game between UMM and Unity at 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 22, at the soccer field. The Homecoming 1993 king and queen will be crowned at a campus supper Friday. The first day’s activities will conclude at 7:30 p.m. with a Stage Front performance of the Harvest Ragtime Review at the Performing Arts Center.

A parade featuring a color guard, marching bands, clowns and numerous floats decorated by student groups at UMM will wind its way through downtown Machias beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday. The procession will begin and end on campus.

This year’s edition of the parade promises to be one of the biggest in UMM’s history. Several Anah Temple Shrine units, including the Highlander Pipe Band, a drum and bugle marching band and both the mini-car and mini-lobster boat units are scheduled to participate.

As in past years, community groups including local Girl Scout and Brownie troops also will march in the parade.

Anah Temple First Ceremonial Master Edward Pellon and Past Potentate Dick Bagley, both of Machias, have assisted UMM to bring the Shriner units to Machias. According to the group, “Shriners play so crippled and burned children can have free hospital care paid for by Shriners of North America.”

UMM, under President Paul Nordstrom, has worked hard in recent years to play an increasingly active role in the Machias community. UMM sororities and fraternities continue to perform a variety of community service functions in town. Each May, UMM opens its grounds to the Washington County Special Olympics.

The participation in Saturday’s parade by off-campus groups is another step in further integrating the campus and local communities. The public is urged to line the streets and enjoy the parade.

Other activities Saturday include a daylong varsity women’s volleyball tournament beginning in the morning. In the evening, the annual basketball “super-halves” playoff will be held. Both events will take place in the Reynolds Center.

The basketball competition will begin with a women’s alumni scrimmage at 6:30 p.m. The varsity women Clippers will take the court at 7:10 p.m., men’s alumni at 7:50 p.m. and varsity men Clippers at 8:30 p.m.

For more information call 255-3313.