Wilkes University will host homecoming from Sept. 29 until Oct. 2, featuring many events for students, faculty and alumni to enjoy.
On the student’s side, the weekend kicks off Sept. 29 with a pep rally hosted by Student Government. The event will be from 6 until 9 p.m. on the Greenway. There will be food trucks which will be Frozen Island and Smoked and Sauced BBQ.
Frozen Island is best known for their Hawaiian shaved ice, snow cone, churros and Vietnamese coffee whereas Smoked and Sauced BBQ will be offering a variety of sandwiches and a choice of side which is either coleslaw or macaroni and cheese.
Student government will also be handing out T-shirts that students can wear to the homecoming game on Saturday. These shirts will coincide with the alumni shirts.
“This is the first year that we are doing this,” said Advancement Coordinator, Paige Gallagher. “There has been a disconnect between Alumni and students, especially with the shirts and this way we look and feel more unified.”
The Dance Team will perform at the pep rally and there will be multiple yard games for students to interact with. The pep rally will also announce the homecoming court. The senior class filled out a google form sent weeks prior and finalized it to the top ten.
“This year we are doing something a little different,” said business management major, Nolee Ana Grabowski. “The best way to be as inclusive as possible for everybody is to have the finalists tell us what they would prefer to be referred to as, for example, king, queen or royalty. That way we avoid any miscommunication or misunderstandings of what people would like to be referred to as.”
Prince and Princess remain for the underclassmen at the homecoming dance.
The homecoming dance for the students will be the following day of the pep rally at the Mary Stegmaier Mansion as compared to last year where the dance was held on the Greenway. The mansion was used for Student Government’s Spring Fling, which was hosted in the Spring 2022.
There is no theme for homecoming this year.
“The mansion is allowing us to use their decorations for this event,” said Grabowski. “My committee and I did not want to take away from the beauty that is the mansion.”
The food for homecoming is fairly similar to the menu from Spring Fling with a few alterations. The newer food items on the menu this year are tuscan chicken and broccoli sauteed in butter. The returning menu items include maple glazed salmon, penne and vodka sauce and meatballs.
year, Wilkes will play against Albright on Oct. 1. (Zach Paraway)
Music for this event will be provided by senior communication studies major Christopher Gowarty. Gowarty shared that being the DJ for homecoming was a dream come true.
“When I was in high school, the thought of being a professional DJ was always on my mind but I never had a good opportunity to make it happen,” said Gowarty. “Over the summer, I earned some experience being a DJ and finally got my hands on my own equipment.”
Gowarty is very excited to be the DJ as a Colonel. He plans to play some throwback hits while tossing in present day music to entertain the crowd.
As for the alumni, there are a multitude of different events during this weekend as well.
The homecoming student team will have a welcome table from noon to 5 p.m. on Sept. 29. There will also be campus tours and a renovation dedication of Stark Learning Center. The renovation was created for the pharmacy students to utilize. The center will be referred to as the Gregs Pharmacy Center.
This year, there will be a cocktail reception as well.
“Usually in the past we do a bar crawl; however, we had the distributors and establishments come to us this year,” said Gallagher.
The ballroom is currently undergoing renovation and this year they are raising funds to support the renovation. However, they want to honor the Adams family and name the ballroom after Paul Adams and his wife.
On Oct. 1 there will be a Kisses to Cancer 5k which will be at 9 a.m. The tailgate for the homecoming game will follow the end of the 5k around 11 a.m.
At 5 p.m., there will be a Golden Colonels dinner that will be celebrating the class of ’72.
The following day will be the last day of homecoming activities. The day will start bright and early at 9:30 a.m with a Memorial Bell Remembrance and will wrap up with a cannabis presentation and brunch.
For more information about homecoming, information can be found on Student Government’s instagram page (@wilkessg) or wilkesu on Instagram.