Homecoming Week at the University of Idaho brought many spirited Vandals to campus, especially cheerful alumni.
Over homecoming weekend, the UI Cheer Reunion reunited Vandal alumni who were once affiliated with the Idaho cheer squad.
As part of the reunion, cheer alumni met at 360 Gym in Clarkston last Friday to practice their routines for the football game Saturday and got acquainted with one another. The next day, the alumni group tailgated with other Vandals and cheered on the sidelines during the football game.
Marie Duncan, assistant director of alumni events, said the reunion has been a part of homecoming off and on for many years, depending on who leads the group.
She said the Office of Alumni Relations helps plan during the logistical stage of creating alumni events by booking hotels and helping with travel plans.
“We act as the middle man,” Duncan said. “It really helps to create communication between the school and alumni.”
Duncan said the cheer alumni coordinators are role models when it comes to communicating early, as plans for the reunion began early in April. She said starting early is key when planning, because using only one platform to communicate rarely reaches alumni efficiently.
“People might think that an email from UI means something completely different than an invitation to the reunion and phone calls from an unknown number are rarely ever picked up,” Duncan said. “We run into problems, and I get a lot of last-minute calls, but in various ways, the job gets done.”
She said these kinds of events are most successful when word-of-mouth is involved.
“Just making the effort to stay in touch with old friends and communicate with them is the most successful way of reaching out to everyone,” Duncan said.
It is people like UI alumnus Kip Winterowd that Duncan said makes alumni reunions special.
Winterowd, once a member and coach of the Idaho cheer squad, said communicating with members is a great way to lend support and stay in touch. He said utilizing a group Facebook page for cheer alumni and reaching out to the Office of Alumni Relations helped immensely in bringing the whole reunion together.
Winterowd said being back in the Kibbie Dome as part of a cheer squad was a unique experience.
“There is no place like it,” Winterowd said. “I cheered and coached at the university for a while, and have worked all over, but the Dome has its own kind of feeling. It really feels like home in there.”
Duncan said the feeling of home that UI provides is what keeps alumni coming back to the university, whether it is for a special event like Homecoming Week or any other week of the year.
She said it is hard to put a number on the amount of alumni-related events that go on during Homecoming Week, because many groups host their own events around campus without the help of the Office of Alumni Relations.
“We have this really cool problem where often times alumni groups create their own events or small reunions that our office isn’t involved in,” Duncan said. “I don’t think many universities face that, so our university alumni are special in that way.”
Duncan said even though alumni groups get together in various ways during Homecoming Week, the reason groups keep coming back is always the same.
“They rekindle old friendships, you know? They say, ‘I haven’t seen you for 20-plus years and our lives have drastically changed, but at the core of it, we are still Vandals,’” Duncan said. “Homecoming really does that to people.”
Winterowd also said homecoming reminds alumni of a great time in their life. He said UI alumni come back to their alma mater to reminisce and give back in any way they can.
“Attending weekends like these mean a lot,” Winterowd said. “In a way, coming back is a way to give back to a place that has given you so much.”
Hailey Stewart can be reached at [email protected]