Una, Shoals Community Celebrate Purple Reign Week: Homecoming Edition

Sep. 21, 2009

Michelle Eubanks, UNA, at media@una.edu, 256.765.4392 or 256.606.2033

FLORENCE, Ala. - With Homecoming just around the corner, the University of North Alabama is challenging the Shoals area to bring out their purple and gold again for another Purple Reign Week. UNA's inaugural Purple Reign Week recently kicked off the university's fall athletic season with 33 local businesses competing to show the greatest UNA spirit.

Homecoming week begins Sept. 28 and concludes the following Saturday.

Competition categories

The business-decorating competition will be broken up between large businesses (16 or more employees) and small businesses (15 or fewer employees). Several new categories are being added for the Homecoming edition of Purple Reign Week. Participants will compete for the best-decorated Homecoming Parade float, the best-decorated downtown storefront window, and the best-decorated street vendor at the Oct. 2 First Friday downtown. There will also be a department contest at UNA. Businesses qualifying for the downtown window front competition must be along the UNA Homecoming Parade route, which includes N. Court Street from Irvine Avenue to E. Tennessee Street, the block of E. Tennessee Street between Court and Seminary, and Seminary Street from E. Tennessee to Irvine. The Homecoming Parade is scheduled to begin at Rogers Hall at 11 a.m. Oct. 3.

Winner will receive...

Winners of each category will win free tickets to UNA's Nov. 12 Mac McAnally concert. The winner of the large-business category will win one ticket per employee, up to 50. The winner of the small-business and UNA department categories will win one ticket per employee, up to 15. Ten tickets will be awarded to the winners of the downtown storefront window and parade float categories. Five tickets will be awarded to the best-decorated First Friday vendor. Second- and third-place winners in each category will receive large decorative display ribbons.

How to enter

To enter one of the Purple Reign Week: Homecoming Edition categories, submit the online form at www.una.edu/purple. The same Web site offers a downloadable coupon for 15 percent off of UNA decorations, apparel and other items at the UNA Campus Bookstore. The coupon is available to local businesses as well as all UNA fans and is good through the 2009-10 academic year.

About The University of North Alabama

The University of North Alabama is an accredited, comprehensive regional state university offering undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degree programs through the colleges of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering; the Sanders College of Business and Technology; Education and Human Sciences; and the Anderson College of Nursing and Health Professions. Occupying a 130-acre campus in a residential section of Florence, Alabama, UNA is located within a four-city area that also includes Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, and Tuscumbia. UNA Athletics, a renowned collegiate athletics program with seven (7) Division II National Championships, is now a proud member of NCAA Division I as part of the Atlantic Sun and United Athletic conferences. The University of North Alabama is an equal opportunity institution and does not discriminate in the admission policy on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, disability, age, or national origin. For more: una.edu and una.edu/unaworks/.