Every year, Edmond Memorial High School (EMHS) hosts the famous philanthropy event known as Swine Week during the final days before spring break, during which the school has many events and dress up days. The recipient this year is HopeHouse OKC, a homeless shelter for women and children, and has been chosen as the 2023 beneficiary. 

Back in October, the student body voted on the theme for Swine Week. After all the votes were cast, “Around the Boarld” was announced as the concept for the year. This theme includes all of the decorations around the school, the official shirt, the final assembly’s “Piggy Vision” and much more. The only aspect that this year’s theme did not include was the dress up days, which left students disappointed. 

Monday’s outfit of the day is the class color war with each grade wearing a different color: Freshmen wear red, sophomores boast blue, juniors shine in white, and seniors proudly rock the prized pink. Class colors have become a staple of the week and are looked forward to each year. Each color is a marker of how far the students have come throughout high school. This tradition should continue for years to come. 

Another tradition during Swine Week is Tuesday’s Jersey day. The reason for this trend is because Tuesday the assembly is the most active for the participants.The slight problem is that it doesn’t tie back to the theme. Most students wear the jerseys of professional or college sports teams in the US. While it is a fun idea, it could have been more specific. A way to make it fit with “Around the Boarld” could have been making it a day to wear sports clothes from other parts of the world. Keeping this in mind, Tuesday could have been turned into an Olympic type of event with different students representing different countries to have the best of both worlds. 

Wednesday is the day of the Techno assembly where each grade performs a dance routine that they created under a blacklight. The seniors once again wear pink while the other teams wear white. The audience wears neon colors to glow in the dark. While this dress up day is known to be a fan favorite, it once again doesn’t follow the theme. 

Thursday’s dress up day and assembly changes from year to year. For 2023, the assembly will be centered around participating in exciting dares in order to raise money for the HopeHouse. The attire for the event is decades. This is theme interesting because two overall ideas that the students could vote for in the October was “Around the Boarld” or “Back in Swine.” In order to appeal to both voting groups, StuCo decided to include decades as a dress up day even though “Around the Boarld” won. While this doesn’t follow the theme, it does give students a wide variety of options. There is no need to buy something new from the store for this dress up day, students can pull something straight out of their closet. Perhaps an old costume or a borrowed outfit from a sibling will work just fine, which helps everyone have the same opportunities when it comes to dressing up. 

The final assembly, which takes place on Friday, will have everyone wearing the official shirt. This year’s design includes a globe on the front with a collage of landmarks on the back. This stunning design makes this shirt one of the best Swine Week has had in recent years. With the entire student body proudly wearing the same shirt, it symbolizes that it took the whole school working together to make this happen. Every single person helped make a change in others lives, which is an accomplishment that they should be proud of. 

While the dress up days are not perfect with how they relate to “Around the Boarld,”, they are an exciting and treasured part of Swine Week. To make the most out of these days, dress up loud and proud. This chance only rolls around once a year. 

Contact Bridget Nye at ruffdraftemhs@edmondschools.net