Homecoming week at Winona State University is always a week of festivity, fun and school spirit. This year was no exception. The week began with lip-sync and cardboard-boat-building competitions, which was followed later in the week by magician Justin Willman’s performance, Joey Bragg at Kryzsko After Dark and the highly anticipated Homecoming parade and football game.
While for most Homecoming seems like a whirlwind of fun and sometimes spontaneous activities, the short few days of Homecoming actually take weeks of planning and preparation, which is primarily done by students. Without student involvement, Homecoming would be nowhere near how popular and successful it is now.
Assistant director of Student Activities, Alex Thompson, is involved with putting on large-scale campus events and advising the Warrior Entertainment Network. “Homecoming is not just a student activities piece; there’s other pieces of the pie, like alumni engagement, putting on a lot of events…we all kind of work together to build that spirit and pride for the week,” Thompson said. According to Thompson, planning for Homecoming week begins “pretty much the second everyone moves in.”
While many of the events for Homecoming are the same every year, like the parade and football game, Thompson said that there are some new events as well. “One of the new events that we tried this year is the homemade boat races—they made boats out of cardboard and duct tape and paddled them across the pool in Memorial…We had teams participate in that and the boats were incredible,” Thompson said.
Above all Thomspon emphasizes her gratitude for the students who dedicate their time and talent to making Homecoming a success. “I just want to give the world’s biggest shout out to our Warrior Entertainment Network,” Thompson said. “These are students who are tirelessly planning to make great events for the student population, not letting their studies falter while also being here almost every night of the week to put on great events. To have that level of commitment from student leaders is incredible.”
One such student is Daisy Trader, a third-year psychology major and Special Events Coordinator for the Warrior Entertainment Network. As part of her role, Trader was the primary leader in planning the Homecoming events. “I think that Homecoming gets people excited to be here at Winona State. There are so many things to do, so there is something for everyone. I feel like at Winona a lot of people go home on the weekends, but Homecoming gives people a reason to stay and attend the events and see what campus has to offer,” Trader said.
Trader also emphasizes her gratitude for her fellow students on the Warrior Entertainment Network and all the hard work they put into Homecoming. “The amount of work all the network members have put into this is insane. We give hours of our free time to plan and prepare for events. Additionally, we give so much of our time between classes and in the evenings to actually run the event.” Without these students and their sacrifices, there would be no Homecoming.
The week concluded with a Winona State football team victory that left the campus excited and proud to be warrior.
