By Abbey Watson<\/p>\n
Connection: everyone craves it, everyone seeks it and everyone aims for it whether they realize it or not. At Harding, connection happens every day; from hanging out in the student center after chapel, to club meetings, to dining with a friend in the cafeteria, there are always people making memories.<\/p>\n
Homecoming is the opportunity for anyone to look back on those memories and to come home again to be with those friends who are like family. For the parents of both current and future Bisons, Homecoming is a way to feel a part of their kids\u2019 lives and to get a glimpse of the connections that are possible at Harding.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFor alumni, it\u2019s a time to come back and remember and to share the memories with classmates,\u201d Liz Howell, vice president of Alumni and Parent Relations, said. \u201cWe have something for everyone, from a petting zoo to inflatable games for young alums who have small children.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether the alumni and parent relations staff is planning for the Heritage Circle Banquet \u2014 a time to induct the graduating class from 50 years ago \u2014 or the Black and Gold Banquet \u2014 an event of over 700 alumni \u2014 or a reunion for the class of \u201878 in President Bruce McLarty\u2019s backyard, Homecoming is about the connection.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Getting everyone back to campus, however, requires a lot of planning and organization.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Heather Kemper, event and project director for Alumni and Parent Relations, said the planning behind Homecoming is about constant contact.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Kemper said they send out about 60,000 postcards through the mail to alumni, parents and friends of Harding.<\/p>\n \u201cWe work on it for months, many, many months,\u201d Kemper said. \u201cWe were sending out letters and working on things last spring. It\u2019s easily a six-month long process. It\u2019s definitely something we\u2019re always thinking about.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Andi Haney, director for Generation HU, a department focused on the graduates of the last 10 years, has been planning the young alumni events for Homecoming as soon as the school year began. No matter the weather, the alumni and parent relations staff said they are equipped with helpful hands to make Homecoming happen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe good thing about Harding is, if something does happen the day of, there are always people across campus in different departments willing to help you and make it run well,\u201d Haney said.<\/p>\n Throughout all of the hard work and countless hours spent planning for Homecoming, it is special to come back, according to Kemper.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI understand life is busy,\u201d Kemper said. \u201cWe\u2019re all busy, and we think we don\u2019t have time to carve out. Even just coming back to campus for a few hours is pretty significant. It\u2019s an accomplishment to come back.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Haney said it is important for both the young and older alumni to come back.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just another way for us to show that we love them and we\u2019re thankful that they attended Harding but to also let them know they are still apart of the Harding family,\u201d Haney said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Abbey Watson Connection: everyone craves it, everyone seeks it and everyone aims for it whether they realize it or not. At Harding, connection happens every day; from hanging out…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15086,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}