DETROIT, MI (March 17, 2005) - Wayne State University will be celebrating the passage of winter with its quirky and unique Groundhog Day-like tradition, the 22nd Annual Funeral for Ol\' Man Winter, at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 6, 2005.
Led by the \"Monster Truck Hearse\" and Jay Towers from WDRQ\'s Jay and Rachael Show, the funeral procession will rumble through campus taking WSU students, employees and the community on a wild and wacky burial march starting at Einstein Bros Bagels outside North Residence Hall (off Anthony Wayne Drive). Marchers will bury winter and welcome Mr. Spring outside the Circa 1890 Saloon on Cass Ave. between Warren and Palmer.
The processional through campus will be led by a Dixieland band featuring Wayne State music students, under the direction of Douglas Bianchi. Condemning winter will be former WDIV Local 4 television personality Dwayne X. Riley. Riley will perform a brief ceremony in front of Circa 1890 Saloon, welcoming warmer weather and crowning Mr. Spring, 2005 Wayne Idol winner and WSU music major Gary Bozigian. Bozigian will welcome spring to Detroit in song. After the ceremony, Circa owner Steve Xantheas will welcome all mourners and celebrators to dine inside, where he will donate the day\'s proceeds to the WSU Department of Music and Mortuary Science Program.
WSU public relations employee Bob MacDonald started Funeral for Ol\' Man Winter in 1982 to celebrate the end of tax season and the first day of spring. In a New Orleans-style funeral, WSU jazz students played Dixieland in a procession that included a casket, a skeleton, a cerermonial minister to damn winter and Miss Spring to welcome the warmer season. Ceremony attendees brought old tax forms to toss into the coffin and dined inside Circa 1890 Saloon, where Xantheas donated the day\'s proceeds to Wayne State.
The tradition continues on April 6 where all in attendance will receive commerative T-shirts, Einstein Bros Bagels coupons, spring water donated by Pepsi, Mexican-style hot chocolate donated by Agave restaurant, and spring flowers donated by Blumz... by JRDesigns. For more information, call (313) 577-1795 or visit wayne.edu/ffomw.