Leah Bethea sat down with Reagan Labiak, a Homecoming Queen candidate, to talk about her platform.
Bethea: Please introduce yourself with your name, major and hometown.
Labiak: Hi, I’m Reagan Labiak, I’m from High Point, North Carolina, and I’m a double major in criminal justice and political science.
Bethea: What are you involved with on and off campus?
Labiak: On campus, I’m a student athlete. I’m on the women’s rowing team. I’m a coxswain on that team, which for people who don’t know about rowing, that’s the person who sits in the front of the boat and steers. I’m also an executive member of the Bama Bee Club — I’m our secretary. I was a founding member of that club as well. And I also work with the National Marrow Donor Program, which has an on-campus club as well.
Bethea: Why did you decide to run for Homecoming Queen?
Labiak: The main thing that led me to run for Homecoming Queen was service. I was looking through the four pillars of what Homecoming Queen were: leadership, service, scholarship and character. Service is what stuck out to me the most. My service platform is the National Marrow Donor Program, which does swabbing drives for people to join the marrow donation registry, which can be life-saving transplants for blood stem cell and bone marrow transplants. This is really special to me personally, because my uncle had a bone marrow transplant about eight years ago to cure leukemia, and my dad also suffered from a rare form of blood cancer as well. He unfortunately passed away before he was able to get a transplant. But this organization and just bringing awareness towards blood cancer is something that’s really personal to me, and something that I really wanted the opportunity to get to share with more people. I’m also just really excited about the opportunity to get to connect with more members of campus.
Bethea: What is your platform, and why did you decide to run on that specific platform?
Labiak: My platform is the National Marrow Donor Program. That’s what led me to want to run, and what I’ll be running on behalf of really just in honor of my dad and getting to bring more awareness to blood cancer and to the community all around. We’re going to be doing some tabling that is swabbing drives. You can do just a simple cheek swab to join the marrow donation registry, and that has the potential to be a painless transplant for someone to save their life, like my uncle. It’s just a really special organization to me.
Bethea: How have you served the community during your time as a student?
Labiak: I think being an athlete has given me an interesting opportunity to be a representative of The University of Alabama, but kind of looking past campus and out into the community of Tuscaloosa, I’ve done a lot of work with Jeremiah’s Garden through being executive officer from the Bama Bee Club. We do beekeeping as well, but we also focus a lot on conservation efforts. So, Jeremiah’s Garden is a local community garden in Tuscaloosa that provides fresh produce free of charge to those who are battling food insecurity. Last spring, we did a lot of work with them. I set those up as the secretary, we were out gardening every other weekend, we were helping them plant things, harvest things, planting trees, just kind of maintaining that garden, and that has been a good opportunity to get to serve the greater Tuscaloosa community, rather than just my involvements on campus as a student.
Bethea: Finally, why do you think you are the best choice for Homecoming Queen?
Labiak: I feel like I had a lot of experience being a leader on this campus through my time as a student athlete. Being a coxswain on the women’s rowing team has given me a lot of leadership skills and showed me how to lead a group of people coming from all different backgrounds, from all across the country. So that’s a really good opportunity, getting to be the leader who’s bringing people together from all different walks of life and different backgrounds, just being in perfect harmony together, I feel like I’ve learned a lot of great leadership qualities because of that, that I would love to bring to the greater campus. I’m super, super passionate about service, my platform in general, but even other organizations that I can serve, I’m always looking for an opportunity to help others and get to give back. So, I just feel like those are really the two biggest characteristics, having that passion for service and those leadership capabilities that make me a good choice.
Homecoming campaigning begins on Oct. 13 at 7 a.m. and goes until Oct. 22 at 7 p.m.
Elections are on mySOURCE on Oct. 22 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The 2024 Queen will be announced on Oct. 25 during the Homecoming pep rally and bonfire.
