If you don’t have a shaker (the plastic pom-poms you pick up on your way into the student section for a home football game), what do you even do with your hands? Shakers are essential for anyone in the student section, but it seems like there’s been a shortage this year, especially at last week’s game against Minnesota where the novelty was missing entirely.

What happened to all the shakers for the student section at home games this year? And what are we supposed to do with our hands?

The Blue & White Society, the student chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association, provides the shakers for every home game. “The Blue & White Society and the Alumni Association provide more than 200,000 shakers throughout the season to our student section for all home football games,” BWS President Misha Demchuk said.

That many shakers requires a lot of coordination. Last week, a problem with the order left the Blue & White Society with boxes full of the wrong color shaker and students with awkward, empty hands every time something exciting happened or a cowbell came out.

“Unfortunately, this week, we had a hiccup in that the vendor delivered several boxes with incorrect colored shakers,” Demchuk said. “That coupled with the rain had us hold back on distribution.”

Students immediately noted the absence of the shakers, first three weeks ago when there weren’t enough for every member of the student section and obviously more so last Saturday when there weren’t any at all. Though it made eating a chicken basket a little easier, the lack of shakers will be resolved this weekend for homecoming.

“We’ll have plenty of blue-and-white shakers available in the student section Saturday,” Demchuk said.

Saturday’s student section will also, as per tradition, feature a pink and black S-Zone, Penn State’s original school colors, to commemorate our past.