Football, Fanfare, & Fall

It’s finally over! Homecoming 2009 is now just a fond college memory. My last year as homecoming advisor – hurray!!!

The planning started last spring – getting together a student committee and keeping them focused over the summer. We had to start last spring because homecoming was SO early this year. This was the school’s second autumn homecoming. Until last year homecomings were held in January (yes, in Iowa). "Why?", you might ask. Because until six years ago the school did not have a football team so the beckoning to alumni was during basketball season in the dead of winter.

First I have to vent. The first full week of classes is WAY too early for homecoming! Freshman have barely found their way to all their classes and returning students aren’t in an academic rhythm yet and are still morning the loss of summer and sleeping in. There was no school newspaper being published this early; we have a new no-posters ruling in response to global warming (SERIOUSLY???? a campus with no posters?????????? BRILLIANT!!!); and a student intranet that students HATE. So between homework-stunned students and no dynamic way to market the events …. I’m surprised we had any attendance at all.

My co-advisor and I spent every lunch time sitting near the cafeteria selling homecoming t-shirts and encouraging kids to vote for royalty…(yes, I’m behind on my ‘real’ work!!!!)

Without listing all the details of the week – here are a few of the highlights.
Sunday – decorated the commons – theme this year was Renaissance – “Chargers of the Cliff (the school sits on a hill – the athletic teams are ‘chargers’) Kickin’ It Old School”. We borrowed madrigal decorations from the music department. (This could be an entire blog on its own – working with one of the music department nuns… WOW… I SOOOOO need to find a confessional about now.)

Sunday evening – movie night – Robin Hood Men in Tights – shown in the commons.

Monday through Friday during the day – we have “Fan of the Day” with designated ‘dress as’ themes. Judges pick the best ‘dresser’ and that student is designated as “Fan of the Day”. Each ‘Fan of the Day’ wins an inflatable crown, a LOVELY certificate, and a $20 gift card to Wal-Mart. Monday was ‘Dress as Your Favorite Faculty’. Tuesday – Dress Renaissance; Wednesday- Dress opposite gender; Thursday- Dress as Your Undergraduate Major; Friday – Dress Blue & Gold (school colors).

Monday evening was Lord and Lady BCU (traditionally Mr. & Mrs. BCU) a lighthearted talent competition. Laughed til I cried at this one.

Tuesday evening we hosted a Renaissance festival. A twenty member Renaissance troupe from Sioux Falls was on hand to add to the mood – including ‘knighting ‘the men on the court and instructing the ladies of the court on proper curtseying. Large attendance at this one – people had a hoot!

Wednesday evening – Faces of BCU – calendar competition. This was sponsored by the Student Government Association – which I am also an advisor to.

Thursday evening – Search for the Holy BCU Grail (okay – it was a light up plastic pilsner glass decorated with genuine gems from the Dollar Tree). This scavenger type event was complete with inflatable bam-bam sticks (homage to the coconuts of Monty Python and the Holy Grail).

Friday evening was coronation. It included a darling skit – Chargers in Tights. If you have never seen the movie Robin Hood Men in Tights – you must at least watch this. The students were hysterically funny and amazingly good at a chorus line! A senior slide show followed. I put the show together using each of the senior’s freshman ID photos – then candid shots through the years. One of the junior students put music to it. The students loved it. The end of the evening was the actual coronation of king and queen. Last year’s king and queen were on hand to do the actual crowning. The slate of royalty was wonderful this year: all genuinely nice kids, all dean’s list students. The M.C.’s were male students dressed in homecoming t-shirt’s and child-size ‘armor’ from the Dollar Tree….they were VERY funny.

Saturday – the football game – announcing the homecoming royalty during half-time. No stress there - right? WRONG! The King and Queen were in Madison, SD at a cross country meet!!! I called the coach on Friday as soon as I realized he was going to have our extra special cargo in a van at a meet that started at 10 for the women and noon for the men…he promised to do his best to get them to the football field by half-time. I got mile by mile updates via text during their rapid transit home. Before the whistle ending 2nd quarter – I told the dance and cheer squads the line-up for half-time activities was officially changing to have the royalty be last on deck. After a dicey ‘conversation’ with the dance advisor and using the ‘my advisor role trumps your dance squad advisor role’ card…I am happy to say no one ended up in the pillory. The king and queen LITERALLY jumped out of the school van and had to RUN to the staging area - just in the nick of time! As the king and queen were RUNNING to the staging area - a junior (male) student stripped out of his black homecoming t-shirt and tossed it to the king who had left his homecoming t-shirt in the school van....The royalty made their entrance, wearing their black Chargers of the Cliff homecoming t-shirts and jeans, using this as their inspiration. The crowd LOVED it.

Saturday evening – the dance. Loud music, largest attendance BCU has ever had for a homecoming dance. Had SEVERAL students stop and say thanks or ‘best homecoming ever’. As tired as I am – it was all worth the worries, hassles, loss of sleep, frustrations, and last minute adjustments.

Sometime in this non-stop action packed week I found time for a card! Here is another 'thankful' card for the Mary Lee series.
~Base card is vanilla PaperTrey (did I mention - this cardstock is THE BEST?)
~Layer of design paper
~A couple layers of mulberry paper
~Stamps are from Stampin Up!
You can get up close with the card by clicking on the image.

Now that homecoming is over I hope to get more bubble and blog time in.
Thanks for stopping by!
All good wishes,
Nancy