Homecoming candidates fervently post fliers and chalk sidewalks to further their campaigns…. Homecoming candidates fervently post fliers and chalk sidewalks to further their campaigns. Oakland businesses display their pride with blue and gold paw prints painted onto their windows.

The spirit of homecoming is in the air, as Pitt student and alumni organizations alike brace for the celebration of 219 years as a university community.

This weekend, between 40,000 and 50,000 alumni and their families will visit Pitt and take part in the homecoming festivities, according to Lee Patouillet, the executive director of Pitt’s Alumni Association.

The annual campus tradition of Homecoming, continuing through Sunday, includes more than 50 events happening day and night for students, alumni, faculty, staff and friends of Pitt.

As the pinnacle event of the weekend, Pitt’s home football game against Rutgers will take place at 5:45 p.m. tomorrow at Heinz Field.

While the football game provides on-the-field excitement, the Alumni Association will host a pre-game Homecoming tent at Heinz Field beginning two and a half hours before the game.

Here, the colleges of the University as well as alumni and student organizations will showcase exhibits exemplifying their involvement in Pitt life.

“Alumni love to hear about what student life is like today,” Patouillet said. The Homecoming tent will also give a comprehensive glimpse into current life at Pitt.

“It is a little glimpse into the breadth and depth of the University.”

This glimpse into current life at Pitt will happen Saturday when alumni and students alike will have a chance to meet the recently elected Homecoming court at the Homecoming tent.

Pitt Program Council’s planned activities will also enhance the weekend’s events at Heinz Field. A fireworks and laser show will light up the Cathedral of Learning and all of Oakland tonight at 9:30 p.m.

The annual display, which in the past has drawn nearly 3,000 people to Bigelow Boulevard, will include fireworks both in the sky and surrounding the Cathedral, as well as a laser show on Bigelow.

“It’s nothing you can experience anywhere else,” Roger Whyte, special events director of the PPC, said of the event. “Alumni come back year after year.”

Even if Pittsburgh weather turns to rain, the fireworks will go on. According to Whyte, the event has never been cancelled before and will continue in spite of any adverse weather.

If it does rain tonight, students can seek shelter after the fireworks display at the Homecoming Extravaganza, a PPC free casino night inside the William Pitt Union beginning at 10 p.m.

A Homecoming cruise aboard the Gateway Clipper planned for Saturday night rounds out the PPC’s activities for students.

The fun and entertainment of Homecoming weekend is not only limited to student events and Heinz Field, though. Homecoming is also a celebration of academics and the professional successes of graduates.

The 2006 Legacy Laureates, a distinguished group of alumni honored for their leadership, spoke to Pitt students yesterday at the Legacy Laureate discussion panel, following an invitation-only dinner acknowledging their accomplishments.

In Alumni Hall, two special events help celebrate the alumni connection at Pitt. The dedication of the interactive Legacy Gallery in the building’s lobby and the Pathway to Professions career networking event yesterday evening provided other opportunities for strengthening the alumni-student connection.

“We’re trying to create a culture of giving back and feeling like you are a part of the family,” Patouillet said, referring to these chances for alumni to connect with students over the weekend.

Plans for alumni reunions also highlight the weekend. This year, the class of 1956, along with the other graduating classes of the 1950s, were honored on Wednesday evening with a special reunion celebration at the Twentieth Century Club.

This alumni group, as well as the African American Alumni Council, Alumnae Council and Pitt Band Alumni Council, will celebrate their years at Pitt with special prominence at the Homecoming tent on Saturday.

Numerous other alumni groups from different colleges of the University and from different graduation years and decades will also come together for dinners and receptions over the course of the weekend.

“Homecoming is a celebration of the Pitt family – faculty, staff, students and alumni,” Patouillet said. “It is a way to forge strong relationships between students and alumni, because students will be alumni someday.”

For information about these and the many other events of Homecoming weekend, visit www.alumni.pitt.edu/homecoming/ or www.pitt.edu/~ppc.