In a fanfare provided by the SU marching band and a color guard dressed in red, black and silver sequins, the homecoming committee crowned this year’s homecoming king and queen Saturday afternoon.

Joey Bucher and Sarah Maize were crowned the 2013 Homecoming king and queen during halftime at the home football game versus West Chester.

The runners up for the 2013 homecoming court were Josh Powell and Desiree Siegfried, first runners up; Christopher Paoli and Amanda “Turki” Cloran, second runners up; Dylan Bensinger and Jozalyn Gregor, third runners up; and Bryce Bendgen and Brittany Arnold, fourth runners up.

Maize is a senior majoring in social work and psychology with a minor in women and gender
studies. She is represented by Student Senate, of which she is currently secretary.

Maize was bursting with SU pride after being crowned queen.

“It means that I am super full of Ship spirit and that I absolutely love going to school here and that I also raised a lot of money for MS, which I’m extremely proud of and really excited about. It means I had a lot of support from my fellow Ship students,” Maize said.

Bucher is a junior majoring in early childhood education. He is represented by the New Student Orientation Committee, of which he is treasurer.

Bucher also expressed a love for the university.
“I love Shippensburg. I transferred away and came back to Shippensburg because of how much I loved it. So it’s really awesome that I can represent Shippensburg in the best way I can,” Bucher said.

This year, the homecoming king and queen candidates raised $9,599.06 for the Multiple Sclerosis Society of America, contributing to their semester-long goal of $12,000.

Both Bucher and Maize cited the MS society as a factor in their decision to run for court.

“I have a member of my family who has MS so I really wanted to be involved and make a difference,” Maize said.

“At the end of the day, all the money that we raised goes to a good cause and that’s really what I wanted to do,” Bucher said.

According to Elizabeth Purswani, assistant director for campus activities and programming and an adviser for the homecoming committee, the homecoming committee will continue to add to its total MS donation over the next few weeks from promotional donation sales, including scarf and T-shirt sales from Saturday’s game, candy sales and donation boxes.

To apply for homecoming court, applicants needed at least a 2.5 GPA, 24 credits and to be a junior or senior undergraduate student.

The student also must have a campus organization he or she is a member of to represent them. The court was determined by the student body through a survey provided in an email from Roger Serr, vice president of student affairs.

The king and queen were determined by 30 percent votes, 40 percent interview score and 30 percent fundraising efforts.

An ideal king or queen is one who represents Shippensburg University well.

“The reasoning behind king and queen is really to try and find someone who represents the campus that we can crown that year’s king and queen,” Purswani said.

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