Member of STUCO, Ryan Klein (12) remembers how the KOH dance and KISS week used to be before covid.

“My best memories are at KOH and KISS Week leading up to it,” Klein (12) said.

Keeping in School Spirit (KISS) is the week that leads up to the King of Hearts (KOH) dance and invites everyone to dress up according to a theme. Sarah Hale, a business teacher in charge of STUCO, always thought of this as a fun way to really bring the school together.

“It’s just another opportunity for us, for the community, to come together and show some school spirit,” said Hale.

The KOH dance that came after KISS Week was like a Homecoming Dance, anyone from any grade could attend. The dress code was semi-formal and people went with dates or friends. Though KOH was a pretty popular event, it had a lower attendance rate than Homecoming.

“I feel like it was like 400 people and Homecoming this year, we were at 900 people,” Hale said.

Even though it wasn’t as well attended as Homecoming, KOH had its own pageant similar to homecoming court. This pageant was only for the guys and was titled, Mr. PCH.

“Basically a guy is representing a club or sport and throughout the week, they choose a nonprofit to raise money for. Then they compete during the dress-up days throughout the week and at the lunch games,” Hale said.

The Mr. PCH pageant was held in the gym during AC Lab and Mr. PCH was typically crowned at the KOH dance. This was all pre-pandemic. This year STUCO has decided to make the switch from the KOH dance to Dance Marathon. Dance Marathon is far more laidback than the KOH dance and is also a fundraiser for Children’s Miracle Network.

“With KOH, not a lot of people cared about it as much, it was just another dance, but I think dance marathon is more unique and exciting,” said Maggie Huff, another member of STUCO.

Considering dance marathon has no dress code, is more relaxed than the KOH dance, and is for a good cause, STUCO hoped the attendance rate would be higher.

“The numbers really just didn’t support us continuing to host this dance. So now, everything is a little bit more laid back because we were wanting to have kind of a laid-back dance anyway,” said Hale. There isn’t much debate on whether people think that the dance marathon is a good replacement for the KOH dance.

“I think there are a lot more activities that come with it. Which is good for our community, we can bond together more,” Huff said.

Though it’s not really a change for the freshman, many juniors and seniors who got to experience the KOH dance might miss it.

“I would also love to see the KOH dance maybe brought back in the future. But I do think that the dance marathon is a very important event because of the money that it raises and how it’s for a good cause,” said Klein.

Even though the dance itself has changed, some of the traditions that come along with it, such as Mr. PCH, have stayed somewhat the same. Instead of being in the gym during Ac Lab, the Mr. PCH pageant will be hosted in the evening in the commons. This has changed due to the fact that we can’t do large gatherings during the school day.

“I think it is going to be better because then the contestant’s parents or families can come and watch them in the pageant which when it was held during the school day, they couldn’t do that,” Hale said.

The location change also allows everyone attending to spread out and be more comfortable rather than everyone being all crammed together. A lot of different factors were considered when coming to the conclusion to change the KOH dance, but the Dance Marathon might be a change for the better.