This year, the DU’s student Programming Board (DUPB), organized an array of fall activities, including class competitions, pumpkin carving, Halloween karaoke and the traditional parade for “Haunted Homecoming: Silence the Howl” week, which took place this last weekend from Oct. 26 – 29.
DUPB was the largest planner of Haunted Homecoming, but many other campus organizations and groups helped execute the event-filled week. According to Schultz, DUPB is like the creative big umbrella under which many groups and individuals operate.
“It was really a campus-wide, collaborative effort,” said Schultz.
According to Schultz, DUPB received great support from the Athletics department, as well as the Ritchie Center, Sodexo and alumni relations.
“The Ritchie Center really worked with us in exploring options and securing space for all of our activities,” he said.
According to Schultz, many organizations also contributed to the cost of the homecoming week. As a result, the overall cost of the weekend events were considerably reduced.
“This year’s Haunted Homecoming was generally less expensive for DUPB than many of the other events we put on throughout the year, like May Days,” said Schultz.
The joint effort in executing a haunted week continued in spirit on campus, which Shultz said was stronger than ever this year. According to Schultz, Haunted Homecoming was really about Pioneers coming together and sharing and celebrating their pride.
For example, more than 200 students flocked daily to participate in an interactive DUPB class competition table during the course of the week according to Shultz, which featured mini competitions between members of each class.
The class of 2015 was announced as the winner of the inter-class competition at the Oct. 27 hockey game.
“While the activities throughout homecoming week and weekend are well attended, the parade is the activity that usually draws the biggest crowd,” said Schultz.
Indeed, this year approximately 300 students, parents, teachers and alumni showed their pioneer pride at Saturday’s homecoming parade. More than 30 student clubs participated in the parade, which travelled the perimeter of the university Saturday afternoon. Many were dressed up to match this year’s parade theme “Fear the Pioneer.”
Also showcased in the annual parade were this year’s homecoming royalty Chelsea Mitchell and Jake Muniz. They were nominated by fellow classmates and underclassmen via an email voting system. More than 400 votes were submitted.
In addition, while DUPB events are usually well attended, especially their weekly movie screenings, Schultz mentioned that DUPB was pleased to have an even fuller house Thursday night.
“We were hoping for our usual turnout of about 100 people,” said Schultz. “I have to estimate, but there were probably 200 plus people in attendance for ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ screening on Thursday.”
DUPB also made sure to include annual homecoming traditions in the planning for this year’s homecoming events.
“DU has always celebrated homecoming with traditions – pre-gaming, the hockey game and then a parade – and weekly activities in the past,” said Schultz. “For example, last year we had a dance, this year we had FrightFEST”, which offered students ten dollar tickets to Elitch’s “Fright Night”, which included a pass for the park and tickets for both haunted houses.
Despite the snow, FrightFEST was a sold-out event. Also Thursday in Driscoll Underground, was an evening of pre-Halloween fun; pumpkin carving, caramel-apple making support by the Cooking Club and other interactive activities that drew more than 200 students.
According to Schultz, DU’s Haunted Homecoming week was “spectacular.”
“The execution, the team work, the creativity, this year it was really fantastic,” said Schultz
