Family Weekend and all the events it brings to campus will collide with Charleston High School’s Homecoming.

The annual weeklong event at the high school includes two in-school assemblies, a variety show, powder-puff football game, a boy’s football game, a parade and a dance on Saturday. Family Weekend also has a variety of events, which begin Friday and run through Sunday.

With many of events from both schools occurring this weekend, one would think there would be some overlap.

Cathy Engelkes, deputy director of the scheduling office, has a son at Charleston High School. Engelkes said many people think there would be scheduling conflicts between the two events, but there really are not many.

“They do a lot of their homecoming events at the high school,” she said. “I think it a great thing that we can accommodate both events; it is great for the town.”

While there are not many scheduling conflicts, some students whose families live in Charleston feel torn.

Student Body President Kaci Abolt, a senior communication studies major, is from Charleston and has a younger sister who is a senior at Charleston High School and a part of the homecoming court.

Abolt said the scheduling of both events on the same weekend has not been a problem in the past because she and her dad go to Eastern’s football game while her mom helps her sister get ready for the dance.

Abolt said this year is different because her sister is on the homecoming court.

“Because she is on court, my parents are going to the dance to see her get announced so we are not going to go to the concert,” Abolt said. “It is weird how they always fall the same weekend.”

Brandon Miller, assistant principal of Charleston High School, said the scheduling conflict could not be avoided because the high school only has four home football games this year.

“We can’t use the last game because it is when we honor the seniors, and our first game was the first week of school, we were kind of stuck,” Miller said. “For some of the students who want to go to Eastern’s concert, they have to make a choice.”

Miller said over all, he and his staff simply stress safety because there will be a lot of people around town.

“Anytime it is Homecoming, the kids are really fired up, and we just want to make sure they are making safe choices,” Miller said.

Local businesses are also prepping for a busy weekend.

Bob Kincade, owner of What’s Cookin,’ said Family Weekend is traditionally one of their busiest weekends of the year and that Charleston’s homecoming will only increase it.

“We bump our staffing and make sure we have plenty of help, as well as order more supplies,” Kincade said “We also do a lot of our slicing and dicing prep work a head of time.”

Amy Wywialowski can be reached at 581-2812 or awywialowski@eiu.edu.