Hobo Week is just days away, with the big event, Hobo Day, on Oct. 11.

To mark South Dakota State University’s 113th homecoming, Collegian Media sat down with Grand Pooba Claire Koenecke. Here’s a look at what she said:

Q: What is the Grand Pooba and what are the responsibilities of the Grand Pooba?

A: So the Grand Pooba is technically the president of Hobo Day, which is our homecoming committee here at South Dakota State. Some of the duties that I am assigned is managing the budget, applying for funds early in the year, setting the committee structure and getting all of our committee members in place when they apply. I’m in charge of the Bummobile and kind of all of the administrative tasks of setting up meetings, making sure things run smoothly there. And then I always like to say I’m the firefighter. Any fires that may pop up throughout the year, typically, I deal with those.

Q: What made you interested in Hobo Day and being involved in the Hobo Day Committee?

A: Growing up, my parents took me to every single Hobo Day parade. We always made the drive from Pierre over to Brookings for the day. And so coming to campus, I kind of always knew that that was something I wanted to get involved with. It meant a lot to my family, and it was a lot of fun being able to celebrate it freshman year. And so when I saw that committee application open over Christmas break my freshman year, I took the chance and applied. This is my third year on the committee and it’s been a lot of fun so far.

Q: 2025’s Hobo Day theme is ‘Chase the Horizon.’ What inspired the community to choose that name, and what does it mean to you?

A: The tagline is something that’s kind of difficult to decide every year. The last 10 to 15 years, they’ve kind of done this traditional theme, the more broad, wandering ideas. But you don’t want to choose anything that’s too similar to what’s been done, especially the last couple years. And so, as you can imagine, they’re getting kind of down to words that we can use that haven’t been used before. And so we, as a committee, just sat down and bounced ideas off of each other, brainstormed, and we kind of pick a lot of words that we like. And so this year, one of the words that came up was horizon. And so we played around a lot with taglines that we could use with the word horizon in it. So there were few variations of taglines with horizon in it, but ultimately we decided on ‘Chase the Horizon.’ For me, the horizon is always out there kind of representing any new adventure. But the best thing about a horizon is you can get to one and look around and maybe there’s another. They never go away, just like adventures never stop coming.

Q: Which event are you most looking forward to for the next coming week or two?

A: They all are a lot of fun. They all have a special place in my heart. I think Bum-A-Meal is a lot of fun, because I just know how much students look forward to it. It’s really fun to have an event that really brings community members into Hobo Day and gets them excited. So, I’d say Bum-A-Meal is probably one of the most exciting. It’s also the first one of the week, so energy is high at that point still. But I’m really looking forward to Bumfire this year. The last two years, it’s had to be moved inside. So weather’s looking good right now, so we’re hoping that it can be outside this year, which will be my first time helping with the outside, so we’ll see.

Q: How long is your reign as Grand Pooba?

A: The application for Grand Pooba actually opens the Monday after Hobo Day, which is kind of a quick turnaround, but it’s open for about three weeks and then you’re in place. I was in place by Veterans Day of last year. From there we open up the assistant applications, and those are typically in place by Christmas break. And then all of our committee members are in place by about February or so.

Q: Did you have a lot of committee members return from last year and how has the transition been?

A: Yeah, we had a good amount of people come back from last year. I think there were only a few that chose not to come back. But other than that, we have all the steering. So the Grand Pooba and the three assistant Pooba’s were returners. And then we have five or six returning committee members from last year. So over half the committee came back, which is really exciting. And then we have a couple newbies on the committee, and that’s always fun to show them the ropes too.

Q: Are applications usually full?

A: Yeah, typically. It’s kind of hard because it’s during Christmas break. And so kids are kind of not thinking about school, but they also kind of have their schedule set and I don’t know how many people want to jump into something new at that time. But, yep, it is a pretty competitive application.

Q: Can you explain the difference between Hobo Day and Hobo Week, and why it’s not Hobo Days?

A: That is a commonly confused term, but we, unlike any other homecoming in the state, we do Hobo Day. It is one day that we celebrate Hobo Day on, but Hobo Week is that week of events before the big day. I honestly have no idea how this started, but it’s unique and perfect for our homecoming celebration.

Q: What is your favorite button on your vest?

A: Favorite button? That is a hard one … My dad is also a big fan of Hobo Day, but he collects buttons, so he has almost every single Hobo Day button ever. But he collects them and he found this one. It says “When you’re number one, there’s a reason: SDSU” on it. And I think it’s from ‘61 or something like that, pretty old. And he gave it to me my freshman year Hobo Week. He was in town for a meeting and we got lunch together, and he had this button, and he gave it to me and said, “You can wear it this week, but you have to give it back.” I never gave it back, so maybe eventually I will. But, that’s probably my favorite button.

Q: There’s some events – like Hobo Gear prep night – is this week already on Thursday. What would you say to students that want to join in on the fun?

A: Come to all of our events. The only one you have to sign up before is Bum-A-Meal. All the other ones you can show up, they’re all free of charge. We go into the freshman seminar classes, and I always tell them that we do a lot of work in planning and preparation, but it’s really for the students to be able to enjoy it. I hope they partake in all the fun. Hobo Week, I like to think it’s the best week of the semester, and it’s a lot more fun when students get involved with it too.

Q: How fast does Bum-A-Meal typically fill up?

A: Usually within a day I would say. We have spots for about 700 students to come and eat this year, and that ones a magical event. They all are super cool, but Bum-A-Meal, it’s really interesting to see community members sign up and say how many students they can feed. Then we get groups of students. So, kind of playing that Tetris to make sure that whoever signed up for 20 students is only getting 20 students, and that’s a really interesting game to play.

Q: Is there anything in particular we should look out for this year? Is there anything unique this year event-wise?

A: Honestly, I think we’re sticking with the tradition pretty well. We’ll see what each event day kind of brings. Sometimes there’s some unknown factors on the day of. But I think it should be pretty similar to last year’s, hopefully high attendance again this year.

Q: Hobo Day has a super rich history. There’s only been two times where it’s ever been cancelled, which is crazy. What does it mean to be able to be a part of that?

A: It’s a lot of fun, let me tell you. A lot of the committee alumni are still really involved. And so getting to be part of this network of like minded people that wanted to do something for SDSU is really exciting, and it’s fun to hear their stories. It’s also really fun to talk to older alumni of the university, and when you tell them that you’re on the Hobo Day committee, they will probably tell you more than one story from their Hobo Week. And they’ll ask intricate questions about Hobo Day and if we still have traditions alive. A lot of the time, I don’t know what they’re talking about. And I say, you know, I’ll look into it. Maybe we can bring it back. But it’s really fun to see these alumni of SDSU’s faces just absolutely light up when they remember their time at SDSU. Hobo Day is probably one of the first things that comes to mind. And so just knowing that we’re getting to put on these events for students in 50 years to talk about, from their time at SDSU is just something that’s so meaningful, and it really just makes the hard days worth it. The late nights, early mornings, it’s all worth it.

This story was edited for length and clarity. The full interview is available on our YouTube channel, Collegian Media.