by Kevin Ford, Assistant Editor
Northwestern officials have postponed Homecoming festivities until the spring because of complications with COVID-19, though they have not set a date for the event.
The university announced Friday that the annual event would be postponed. The cancelation is in regards to the festivities arranged by the Homecoming Committee.
Homecoming is the biggest event of the year at Northwestern. Alumni and familiar faces return to campus. Popular attractions such as the Miss Cinderella Pageant, Rally Round the Ranger, Town Square Parade and all sporting events will not take place this fall in Alva.
“It will be missed,” Jacqueline Kephart, payroll clerk at NWOSU, said. Kephart attended the Homecoming football game last year and was fascinated by the energy level and brotherhood among the football players, she said.
The parade is one of the biggest traditional parades in all of Oklahoma. Members of the Homecoming Committee said they did not have much choice but to cancel it. The monitoring of such large crowds would be incredibly difficult, officials said, particularly the part where the masses must socially distance.
“I think the town is going to take a hit from Homecoming being postponed,” Vannessa Scoggins, a travel and insurance clerk at NWOSU, said. Scoggins is an Alva native and expressed her concern for the town, as the cancelation of Homecoming also causes the annual car show to be suspended as well.
She said she was incredibly disappointed when event organizers announced the car show was canceled.
A university spokesperson wrote in a press release that the decision was not an easy one to make.