Photo by Amanda J. Stafford Chandler Bacon, a senior accounting major from Cold Spring, was crowned king and Hailey Nierling, a senior majoring in agriculture education and agribusiness management from Decorah, Iowa, was crowned queen during SMSU Homecoming coronation Thursday evening. This year’s theme is “Mustangs Come Together — Six Feet Apart.”

MARSHALL — Homecoming traditions are normally all about gathering together. It’s such a central idea that it was planned to be the theme at Southwest Minnesota State University’s celebrations this year.

Then COVID-19 happened — and the slogan changed. Now, the university is holding its homecoming week as “Mustangs Come Together, Six Feet Apart.”

“We added ‘Six Feet Apart’ this summer,” said Mike Van Drehle, director of alumni at SMSU. After organizers considered how best to keep students and alumni safe, many of this year’s homecoming events went virtual. But there are still a few events that will take place in person, like Saturday’s SMSU homecoming parade.

“We’re one of the very few (universities) who are actually going to do a homecoming parade,” Van Drehle said. Organizers felt it was important to have a little bit of normalcy on campus for homecoming week. Plus, SMSU’s normal parade route from Lyon Street to Fifth Street is long enough that spectators will have plenty of room to spread out for social distancing.

“We do want to caution people, keep your distance. We have a huge parade route,” Van Drehle said. To help cut down on people bunching together, he said there won’t be candy thrown from the floats this year.

The challenge for homecoming organizers this year was how to hold events while still following social distancing guidelines.

“A lot of it is virtual,” Van Drehle said. This year’s homecoming coronation was held virtually, and instead of holding the annual “Mustangs Got Talent” show in person, students and alumni were invited to submit videos of their talent that could be viewed on Facebook.

The interesting thing about having a virtual talent show is that it’s given more people a chance to participate, Van Drehle said. This year, there are more alumni acts in the mix.

“We’ve had everything from magic tricks to golf trick shots, stuff that can’t really be done on a stage,” he said.

Other in-person events were designed to work with social distancing, like a residence hall decorating contest, a medallion hunt and limited seating at the homecoming laser light show in the SMSU Planetarium.

One big homecoming event will be standing on its own to accommodate social distancing. This year’s University Gala, which is usually held the Friday of homecoming weekend, will instead be held virtually from Oct. 25 through Nov. 1, said Meredith Hyatt, director of annual giving for the SMSU Foundation. The Gala is a major fundraising event for scholarships at SMSU. Over the past three decades, proceeds from the event have supported over $950,000 in student scholarships.

“The need, of course, has not gone away,” Hyatt said. This year, SMSU supporters can raise money for scholarships by bidding in online silent auctions. Premier auction items will also be featured throughout the week. Hyatt said an anonymous donor has also offered to match up to $20,000 for direct scholarship donations, which will help replace the proceeds that would normally come from Gala registrations.

Throughout the week, the virtual Gala will feature three video messages on its Facebook page, one from SMSU President Kumara Jayasuriya, one from SMSU alumnus and Foundation Board member Bruce Saugstad and one from 2018 SMSU alumna Muna Mohamed.

People interested in taking part in the silent auction can register online at SMSUGala2020.givesmart.com. It is free to bid, Hyatt said.