Homecoming noonday activities bring BYU community together

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Y-Activity members Kaelie Landon and Nate Rasmussen rally students to sign the banner that will be carried by the BYU football team. (Holly Ferguson)

The Wilkinson Student center buzzed with activity on Oct. 10 as BYU students gathered to visit club booths and sign a banner, which will be carried out by the BYU football team for the Homecoming game against Hawai’i on Oct. 13.

This is the first year the ritual of signing the banner was offered to students and other BYU faculty during the Homecoming week noonday activities.

BYUSA regularly offers activities on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons during Homecoming week. At these events, students can watch club performances, take photos with Cosmo the Cougar and, as of this year, sign a banner for the football team.

BYUSA Activities program director Kaelie Landon said the activities give students a chance feel school pride.

“Activities like Noondays and True Blue Foam give you an opportunity to really get out and feel like you are a part of the school and build up that cougar pride,” Landon said. “It’s really a blessing to start making the school yours so you feel you really belong.”

Brother and sister JP and Naomi Winders sign the flag along with freshman Citlalli Zavala to help show their support for the Cougars. (Holly Ferguson)

Landon said these activities are an integral part of getting students involved in the community on campus. Consequently, she said she thinks it also helps the football team, knowing the students are rallying behind them.

“Just having the whole school cheering them on and telling them we think they are going to do awesome this weekend will be a great motivator to make the game that much more exciting for the football team, too,” she said.

Nate Rasmussen, the executive director for Y-Activities, said homecoming activities can help students feel identified with the BYU community. He said it gives them a chance to help with and contribute to something “bigger than themselves.”

Students can also visit club booths and watch performances from each group. This year, performances included the Country Swing Dance Club, Poetry Slam Club, Breakdance Club and the Abracadabra magic club.

Dallen Shumway joined the Poetry Slam Club six months ago. He sets up booths to help students learn more about it for themselves. (Holly Ferguson)

Poetry Slam Club member Dallen Shumway said having a booth at campus events has been a huge success for the club. He said Homecoming helps bring the club to the BYU community. 

“The reason the club was started was to give voice to the voiceless. It was an opportunity for people who like poetry, or who even don’t like poetry to write something that was important to them and to share that,” he said. “Getting the word out helps it to become a bigger part of BYU.”

Liam Fitzgerald, a sophomore linguistics student, said these events help get students more involved in student life and activities.

“There’s always school spirit but it feels like with Homecoming there’s a bit of an invocation of more school spirit,” he said.

Students who want to participate in “Noonday Activities” and other Homecoming events can find more information by visiting the website.

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