The planning for Ferris State’s homecoming, one of the largest coordinated events of the fall semester, will soon come to fruition with events starting on Sept. 29. The homecoming committee is in final preparations for the week’s activities, trying to ensure that this year’s series of events go off without a hitch.
Luke Eddington, a senior in the plastics program and the head of the homecoming committee, says that homecoming is less about the events and literally about “coming home”.
“I’m looking forward to the reactions of the alumni that are coming back for this year’s homecoming,” said Eddington. “It’ll be nice for them to see how much campus has changed. We have the university center being built and we’re getting a new video board at the football field. So it’s nice to see all these former students coming home and seeing how awesome all these projects are coming along.”
This homecoming being earlier in the semester than normal, Eddington’s main hope is that the weather holds off until all the festivities are over.
“Last year it literally rained on the parade, so my wish is that the weather can stay nice so we can have the best time we can, parade and all.”
According to Eddington, homecoming is as much about Ferris alumni as it is for current students. He hopes that many past students will come back to campus for the events to represent their school.
“Ferris has done so much for me, and I really think that homecoming can be a great opportunity for current students to interact with Ferris graduates so that they can see what Ferris has done for people and what it can do for them now. I’m hoping people, once they come back, will be inspired to give back to the community. That’s what homecoming should be about.”
Shannon Ramso, a senior studying elementary education and the coordinator of the homecoming lip-sync competition says that she’s most excited for her own event because of the large community turnout that completion usually brings.
“[The lip-sync competition] requires bringing a lot of student organizations together for it to happen. They compete against each other. It’s really exciting for me to be a part of something that takes that much planning.”
Ramso said that the entirety of homecoming week was looking to be very busy, with some events taking place on the same day.
“We have the lip-sync competition on Monday, the king and queen elections going on, the Bedsheet Banner all week, the comedian, the alumni tailgating event, and, of course, the game. So it’s an action packed week.”
Like Eddington, Ramso felt that homecoming was important because of the opportunities it presented for both past and current alumni to come back to campus, back to Big Rapids, and give back to the community.
“I think it’s a really important event. It’s a lot more than just the few organizations that come together for the other events other times of the year. And it really brings the Ferris community together, both the people that are here now and the people who have left and come back. It’s a big event, it’s a big draw, so it keeps the excitement up.”