By Rory Dulock | Staff Writer
While homecoming only lasts a week, Baylor Chamber of Commerce puts in several months of planning and preparation to ensure that these traditions will run smoothly and be memorable for the Baylor community.
Austin junior Sammie Thompson is on the Chamber’s homecoming committee for a second year and serves as the homecoming vice chair. Her role includes overseeing the budget for homecoming and helping the coordinators for each of the events plan and prepare.
Thompson said under the homecoming committee, there is a subcommittee — the parade committee — where there is a separate parade chair and vice chair. However, there is help from outside the Chamber, Thompson said.
“It’s a lot of working with Baylor … employees as well as student groups who are involved in homecoming,” Thompson said. “Obviously, it is a whole university thing, as well as whole Waco thing for the parade. [We work] with them to make sure everyone is on the same page and has all the information to make everything go smoothly.”
Thompson said the Chamber has been preparing for homecoming week since the beginning of last semester. Even events such as Dinner with the Livingstones at Albritton House involve a lot of coordination, especially when reaching out to all of the food trucks that are coming.
Around 45 students who are currently part of the Chamber, and they all participate in homecoming planning, preparing and helping out during the week.
“We make sure that crowd management is going well [and] that everyone’s happy and getting their questions answered, and we’re also enjoying the events too. We’re students, so we want to enjoy homecoming week as well,” Thompson said.
San Antonio senior Sofia Keivanzadeh is the homecoming court coordinator. It’s her responsibility to communicate with all the homecoming court nominees, organize the reception, present the king, queen and the rest of their court at all the Pigskin performances as well as facilitate judging.
“It’s been a lot of preparation getting organized, getting my script together, getting the nominees and getting the information to them. [I set] up our initial intake meeting and discussions with them, [find] judges for the judging … and then organizing photos for them … so we have to block off a weekend for that,” Keivanzadeh said.
Keivanzadeh said she would have never expected to be in charge of the homecoming court preparations, but is happy she is because she has learned so much through it.
Thompson said it is a challenge to balance school work and put together homecoming since it requires so much time. However, she said she feels that the work is worth it.
“The hardest part is just balancing it all and making sure that everyone is still on the same page, putting all this time and effort in,” Thompson said. “On the flip side, my favorite part would definitely still be having that responsibility. It is so cool to learn about the tradition of homecoming and actually have a part in it.”