Cassie Forsyth | Arts & Life Co-Editor
Buena Vista University’s (BVU) Student Activities Boards (SAB) is in charge of homecoming week. Senior Elementary Education major Katie Riesselman is the vice president of homecoming for this organization, which means she is in charge of putting the week together.
“I pretty much find entertainment for homecoming, arrange everything, pick out prizes, organize events, and make it awesome,” Riesselman said.
Riesselman has been in the position since January. The position works for her because homecoming is one of her favorite events on campus, and she wanted to be a part of making it special for the rest of the people at BVU.
In order to plan for the events of homecoming week, members of SAB attended the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA) in March. At NACA, the members found entertainment possibilities for all kinds of events SAB hosts throughout the year. This was when they started the planning for homecoming.
Sophomore Biology and Psychology majors and VP of Traditions for SAB Bonnie Keller also helped out with some of the events for homecoming. Her main goal is to plan homecoming coronation. Both Riesselman and Keller feel that coronation takes the most thought and work.
“Coronation is a lot of getting people into place. You have ten people on the court, then you have to get from point A to point B. Then you get all their media release info and their bio info. And then Friday, we have sound check at 1:30,” Keller said. “Then you have to get judges and work with the sound and tech people, and then get people into the gym. Then we work with the entertainment for what he needs and what time he’s going to be there. It’s a lot of work.”
Unlike last year, the coronation will be in the gym at 8:30 p.m. this year.
“We have the lip sync. They’ll be walking in to what their biography is. Then we have the best costume, best dance, best congeniality, and best lip sync,” Keller said.
SAB has also found a new MC, Xclusive, who has opened for Trey Songz, for this year’s coronation. In years past, students were the ones to MC the event. Riesselman and Keller explained that he has his own style and dances to his own mixes.
SAB offers prizes for students who attend events on the week of homecoming. At the first event, students are given a punch card that will be used throughout the week. If they go to one event, their name is put into a drawing once. If they go to four events, their name is put in twice. If they go to all five events, their name is put in three times. SAB has collected $2,000 worth of prizes to give students. Prizes include television sets, a stereo system, concert tickets for Macklemore and Rascall Flatts, Xbox 360 with Kinect, and gift cards to Maurices and the Buckle.
Events for homecoming week are as followed:
Monday, Sept. 30: Acapella group “Home Free” from 7-9 p.m. in Dows
Tuesday, Oct. 1: Bowling from 9 p.m. to 12 a.m.
Wednesday, Oct. 2: Midnight movie, including “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2,” “Prisoners,” and “Insidious”
Thursday, Oct. 3: Triviathon, hosted by UCN
Friday, Oct. 4: Coronation at 8:30 p.m. in the gym
Saturday, Oct. 5: Football game
On Monday and Tuesday, SAB will be handing out free homecoming cups that change colors. On Tuesday, they will be giving out homecoming shirts as prizes for bowling. Throughout the week, they will also be selling the homecoming shirts outside of the servery during lunch.
The theme for this year’s homecoming is “Beaver Pride.” SAB decided against picking an original theme as it was hard to fit the theme into the homecoming events.
“We debated about it, but we don’t really use a theme that much in homecoming, so we just thought we’d stick with beaver pride,” Keller said.
Riesselman and Keller are both excited for what SAB has in store for BVU during this upcoming week.
“You put in so much work for the whole time and just hope it looks good. And then it happens, and you think ‘Wow, this is so amazing.’ I love it. It’s a very rewarding thing,” Keller said.
Photo by Tyson Domingo
