(CBS DETROIT) – The expression “clowning around” takes on a whole new meaning for Lena Antoon and the 200 members of Detroit’s Distinguished Clown Corps. For them, putting on the clown suit is serious business.

By day, Antoon is a Public Speaking professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. But when the weekend of Thanksgiving rolls around, she gears up to march along Woodward Avenue in her clown suit as part of Detroit’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The colors the clowns wear hold a special significance, changing for each five years of service in the Corps. “The first five years, it has to be white,” Antoon explained. “And then it’s the pattern of your choice.”

Antoon’s patterns heavily reference music from the 80s. “So, I love my cassettes, I love my synthesizers, I love my electric guitars.”

Now in her eighth year, Antoon is on her second suit. Members of the Clown Corps pay a thousand dollars each year for the privilege of walking in the Thanksgiving Day parade, with the annual dues going to the Parade Foundation which funds the Thanksgiving Day event.

Despite the early wake-up call and the meticulous preparations, Antoon finds it all worth it to see the smiles on the faces of the children as she and the other clowns hand out colorful Mardi Gras beads.

But wouldn’t she rather stay in bed on Thanksgiving morning? “Yes, I really do,” said Antoon. “Because I already wake up very, very early. As soon as that alarm goes off, I already have everything laid out from the night before, even hand warmers, just in case.”