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By PAUL ROLFE/Missourian  ¦   The Junior Chamber of Commerce, or Jaycees, held its 30th annual Holiday Parade on Sunday. School bands, local businesses and anyone else who wanted to enter the parade marched down Broadway from College Avenue to Fifth Street. The parade lasted an hour and the entries were judged and the top two finishers won cash prizes.

By Kelsey Mirando, Sarah Horn  ¦   The nation’s young people are donating their time and talents to make a difference in their communities.

By Cassandra Leap  ¦   Trick-or-treating in the Stonecrest neighborhood.

By AMANDA BROMWICH  ¦   The Columbia/Boone County Health Department offered the third H1N1 flu vaccine clinic for expanded priority groups Wednesday. According to Genalee Alexander of Columbia/Boone County Health and Human Services, there are roughly 22,000 doses of H1N1 vaccine available in Boone County.

By Adam Falk, Evan Bush  ¦   For MU and Columbia, Homecoming is the game day of the football season. But for the 29 members of MU's homecoming steering committee, planning starts in February.

Each year, three members are selected to direct the next year's plans. Liz Braun, a senior, was chosen last year as a tridirector.

She worked nearly yearround to select new members and then worked closely with them, coordinating several events including the parade.

The committee originally wanted only 125 entries for the parade. Braun, however, drove the 158th entry to signal its end because so many community and campus organizations wanted to participate.

In the hours before the parade started, Braun and the rest of the committee hustled to put eight months of efforts into one morning's event.

By Adnan Khan  ¦   All-American wrestler Matt Pell returns to MU as an assistant wrestling coach. He describes how his past experiences prepared him for his current job.

By XIAOYING GE  ¦   Mizzou After Dark hosted a special event called “Bollywood Night” on Friday, Nov. 5, 2009, at Memorial Union. Many South Asian activities were included in the event, such as belly dancing and henna tattoos. Cedric Cunigan, a student event staff member, and Aditi Bandyopadhyay, a dance instructor, talked about the premise of Bollywood Night.

By LIU LIANCHEN/Missourian  ¦   On Saturday, Children’s Miracle Network held a dancing marathon to raise funds for the children’s hospital.

By Kelly Nelson, Mark Levitt  ¦   Andy Pele describes how he got started in triathlons and why he is now retiring from the sport. Pele has participated in a wide range of athletic events, including inline skating across the state of Iowa, a 100-mile run in Utah and numerous Iron Man triathlons. He retired from competition in September, but his idea of retirement is different than most.

By JACOB CARAH/Missourian  ¦   On Sunday, the African Students Association of MU hosted the Miss Africa Mizzou 2009.

By PAUL ROLFE/Missourian  ¦   At 8 p.m. Friday five writers were given a one-line prompt to write a 10-minute play. Twenty-four hours later those plays were performed in front of an audience at Allen Auditorium. Five teams of writers, directors and actors created the work that normally takes many weeks into one day. This was the first 24-hour play festival held at MU. The Graduate Theatre Organization put on the festival in order to raise money for student research and future events.

By Joe Bradley, Patrick Fallon  ¦   In an effort to promote next week's dance marathon to benefit Children's Miracle Network, students put on a "flash rave" dance party on Wednesday. With DJ Z providing the beats, more than 1,000 students swarmed the Plaza 900 amphitheater to dance their socks off for 20 minutes. The idea came about after the success of a similar party held at Speakers Circle last May during finals week.

By Adam Falk, Evan Bush  ¦   Members of the MU cheerleading squad have to learn to trust one another on the field while doing routines, but it's the trust shown off the field that makes this squad a group of friends.

By Caitlyn Emmett, Carla Jimenez  ¦   Forty-four-year-old Tammy Teel has returned to college after 25 years. Teel, who is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, is attending Moberly Area Community College in Columbia to earn the pre-requisites for a degree in occupational therapy. The community college experienced a 25 percent increase in student enrollment this year and will be moving to a larger facility next fall.

By Lianchen Liu  ¦   On Oct. 31, Columbia residents dress up and ride bikes to Rocheport to celebrate Halloween.

By Erin Stubblefield and Nikki Tekeei  ¦   Jack Hathman travels across the United States selling swords at renaissance fairs; it has been his job for 11 years. Along the way, Hathman has connected with artisans and entertainers, building the foundation for the Columbia Renaissance Fair. Hathman, and his wife, Shanna, asked their loyal cast to participate in this year’s festivities, which included belly dancing, sword fighting, axe throwing and vendors selling handcrafted artwork. Columbia’s fourth annual renaissance fair was held Oct. 17 and 18 at Boone County Fairgrounds. Next year, the couple plans to move the fair into a permanent location, where it can grow in size and number.

By Lee Zucker  ¦   Since the sixth century, Tibetan monks have been creating mandalas, an ancient art form made of finely ground marble. After their opening ceremony on Monday, which included chants and prayers, monks worked hours to create a mandala in Ellis library at MU.

ABC/ESPN announcer Brent Musburger references Columbia Missourian football writer Robert Mays' "10 things that make Texas a bad homecoming opponent" during the Missouri-Texas national broadcast on Oct. 24.

By Daisuke Nakamura  ¦   Kiwamu Tanaka and his wife, Yuki, collect Fire-King wares, which is a division of the brand Anchor Hocking glasswares.

By Matthew Schmertz   ¦   Every organization involved in Homecoming is assigned a storefront in The District to decorate for MU’s Homecoming. Although the game does not take place until Saturday night, students worked throughout the day Wednesday to “Decorate the District.”