On Saturday, February 24, 2024, the long-awaited DanceBlue dance and fundraiser arrived, and Lafayette students managed to raise $46,089.24. Students have anticipated this event since Homecoming, Lafayette’s last major school dance. Lafayette has been raising money outside of school at restaurants like Cane’s and Moe’s for months, and students and teachers have raised money in their classrooms since February 1st.
DanceBlue is an annual tradition started at the University of Kentucky (UK) in 2006 where the year-round fundraiser accumulates into the 24-hour no-sit, no-sleep, dance marathon. All of the money students raised at DanceBlue is donated to the Golden Matrix Fund, a clinic that helps fund and provide care and support for kids who are sick.
“I love watching everyone do the line dance because it’s like it’s incredible to sit up top, as I always go up to the top, and watch everyone line dancing. To see all those kids come together, and to see everybody doing the line dance together, is the best thing ever. I started crying at one point, because it’s such a sweet moment to see everybody doing something together and as a school to achieve something and just seeing everybody there in their matching shirts for this cause, it’s always very humbling,” said Mrs. Schwab, the head of Student Council and organizer of Dance Blue.
In 2008, the first mini-marathon of DanceBlue was established at Lexington Catholic High School, and in 2015, Lafayette High School decided to join the tradition. These mini-marathons are an excellent way to spread awareness and gain more donations for the children. Unlike the original DanceBlue at the University of Kentucky, these mini-marathons are only 6 hours in high schools.
“One year we did a lip sync battle, and it was the coolest. We had trophies up in the Student Council closet to give out. The entire place was quiet watching, everyone was too stunned to speak when they were watching people go up there to do it. So I’d love to add in a couple of competitions and do that for next year.” said Schwab.
We asked Mrs. Schwab what her estimated goal for Dance Blue 2025 is, and she said “The juniors rising seniors want fifty thousand, but we will probably set it at forty-eight and see what happens.”
DanceBlue shirts were sold for $25 in the cafeteria during lunch periods and in Ms. Schwab’s room before and after school. They were also sold upfront at the dance for $50. These shirts were student’s tickets to be able to enter the dance and were provided as a nice souvenir keepsake of the occasion. When asked, six students said that the tickets were worth the $25 (or $50 if they paid upfront) for the kids.
“I think that I wanna do a video next year to explain some of the parts of Dance Blue, because I don’t think a lot of kids understand the line dance piece, and learning the line dance and why we are on our feet for six hours. I would like to change that up a bit, and then I also want to add in more.” Mrs. Schwab stated.
“We used to do a lot more theme hours, but everything gets so busy that we kinda let that dissipate and we ended up doing a glow party towards the end to kinda just run with that, because everybody’s all over the place, and eating, and on the inflatables, and that kind of stuff, so we’ll see but I would like to add in a couple of additional theme hours.”
At DanceBlue this year, there were many activities such as a 360 video booth, face painting, fun inflatables, line dancing, glow-in-the-dark dancing, and food from places such as Dominoes, Jet’s Pizza, Jimmy John’s, Fazoli’s Breadsticks, Mad Mushroom’s pizza, Critchfield’s, Slim Chickens, Orange Leaf, Moe’s, Andy’s Custard, and more. The cafeteria was used for food and photo ops, with an overcrowded dance circle forming around 8:45 p.m.
Although it was an enjoyable night, many students were upset about the food and were not allowed to eat despite saying that food would be served at 7:00. “I really hate it because they said we would be allowed to eat at this time and yet they are still not allowing us to eat”, said by a student at Dance Blue. After some time they began to allow six students into the cafeteria at a time. This helped keep people satisfied for the rest of the night.
Many would say this year’s DanceBlue was a major success. Lafayette exceeded their goal of $44,000, the most Lafayette has ever raised for DanceBlue. All the money will be donated to the Golden Matrix Fund. Thank you to everyone who helped make this possible.
