Edmond Memorial High School’s Swine Week 2024 is at its halfway point with the much-beloved neon-themed day, featuring the techno assembly. Like all Swine Week assemblies or events, the main goal of techno is to raise money for this year’s recipient. All proceeds from the techno assembly and this year’s Swine Week will go to Peaceful Family Oklahoma, an organization whose goal is to help children who are in families suffering from the disease of addiction. 

Wednesday’s techno assembly involved students dressed in neon clothing to prepare for the blacklight dance hosted during school. Most of the student body participated in this dress-up day, meaning the effect of the black light was seen by everyone. 

The assembly started just like any other, with the national anthem and each grade level doing its “Can You Dig It?” chant. But for this assembly, the schoolwide “Can You Dig It?” ended with the lights shutting off and the blacklights coming on, commencing the third assembly of Swine Week. 

Once the lights had been shut off, the drumline brought the energy and the beat to encourage everyone to clap along.

“I loved the dramatic intro with the pianist and drumline, everyone was so excited and there was so much energy,” junior Logan Marshall said. 

The main event of techno was that each grade level performed its choreographed dance, and each grade competed to see who could win first place. Popular music, acrobatics and dancing skills made this assembly one to remember while still contributing to the cause. Each grade level spent many hours practicing their dances. Each class’ dance was different, with unique elements to each one that made the performances especially detailed. By the end of the assembly, the seniors had been declared as the best and the winner of the techno assembly. 

Between dances, StuCo carried out money runs, where StuCo members from each grade ran around with buckets, hoping to collect as much money as possible for their class. After each money run, the totals from each grade were counted up, and at the end of the assembly, the winner was declared. What makes the money runs of techno a bit different than other assemblies, since techno was in the dark, the money runs might be slightly more challenging than those of other days. 

Class competition is a recurring theme of Swine Week, with Monday being entirely class competition-themed and techno featuring class competition through the dances and money runs.

“Techno was an amazing way to have healthy competition between classes,” junior Maddy White said. “Each grade has equal opportunities for success and has their own strengths that benefit them.”

Of all the Swine Week assemblies, techno requires a great deal of organization and planning from StuCo to make sure everything is set up correctly for the big event. From the placement of the blacklights, streamers and much more, the behind-the-scenes of techno was what led to such a performance. Without StuCo’s hard work, techno would not have been possible. 

“It was very organized and well put together and didn’t call people out of the audience unlike the other assemblies,” White said. “The signs and cheers that each grade has coordinated to their class and entice the audience and present them with a specific group to cheer and be proud for.”

Overall the techno assembly was a wild celebration for a local cause, seeking to help out those in need in the community. From dancing and singing to the audience glowing in their bright neon clothes, techno was one of the most memorable and school-wide favorite events of Swine Week this year. 

Contact Emma Eischeid at [email protected]