UDance 2022 Theme & Details with The Event Operations Team!

With the day-of our annual 12-hour UDance Dance Marathon only 18 short days away, our theme has finally been revealed!

UDance 2022: Until Every Child Gets to Play.

UDance 2022 Event Operations Team

(Left to right) Director: Kailey Schissler, Chairs: Jen Moran, Caroline Stevenson, & Grace Cogan

The Event Operations team on the UDance Executive Board has worked tirelessly since the summer to select, plan, and execute the best theme possible for our first UDance back at The Bob Carpenter Center, The University of Delaware’s main sports arena, since before the COVID-19 Pandemic.

UDance Executive Board Graphic Design Chair, Carolyn Gray made this theme idea a reality by creating this year’s logo and entire themed branding. Event Operations Director, Kailey Schissler explained, “Carolyn, really brought our vision to life with her amazing design. The logo truly captures our idea and I know the shirts are going to look amazing!” Carolyn also shared her feelings about seeing her work represent the entire year’s efforts. She said, “it’s very rewarding to see not only my work, but the work of the whole executive board from the entire year finally come together. I feel so grateful to be a part of such an altruistic community that has enabled me to grow through projects like designing the UDance 2022 logo and theme branding.”

Kailey detailed a bit more about this year’s theme: Until Every Child Gets to Play. She described “I love this theme because it is so nostalgic and reminds me that every child deserves to have a childhood where they can play and have fun, and that's what we are working towards.”

The UDance 2019 Executive Board after the fundraising total for the year was revealed

Given this is the first fully in-person UDance 12-Hour Dance Marathon since before the COVID-19 Pandemic, Kailey and her teammates definitely faced challenges, but also had the honor of planning a pivotal UDance. “I am so excited to have a part in creating the first in-person UDance at The Bob Carpenter Center since 2019. When I went to my first UDance freshman year (UDance 2019), it was so inspiring, and it was the main reason I wanted to be on the executive board. It is so special to plan UDance now, and I hope all the students attending for the first time feel the same magic I did in 2019,” she continued.

Event Operations Team at the first ever ‘Why Wednesday’ event, which they created!

In addition to Event Operations Director, Kailey Schissler, the Event Operations team is also composed of 3 Event Operations Chairs: Caroline Stevenson, Grace Cogan, and Jen Moran.

“The chairs on my team, Caroline, Jen, and Grace, are so amazing, helpful, and supportive, and I am so lucky to have worked with them and watched them grow,” Kailey explained. “They helped me become a better leader and none of this would have been possible without all of them.”

Event Operations Chair, Caroline Stevenson, described her excitement for the day-of UDance. She shared, “It’s been pretty difficult to imagine what the day-of would actually look like since I’ve never seen UDance at ‘The Bob’, but that makes me even more excited for this year’s 12-hour dance marathon.” Caroline, along with the majority of students at UD, have never experienced the day-of UDance at the traditional location of The Bob Carpenter Center. Therefore, this year’s 12-hour dance marathon will be a pivotal event as it will be the first ‘real’ UDance for most students on campus.

“Our team chose the theme of UDance 2022 way back in September. It started off as a small idea, and over the past 7 months, we’ve seen it grow from just a preliminary idea to a real logo with a slogan and to individual rooms and walls planned out to embody different aspects of the theme. Seeing it come to life over time has been surreal,” Caroline continued. “We’ve also been able to work with so many other teams on the executive board to help plan their aspects of the day-of decor and it’s been incredible seeing our entire board come together to make our ideas come to life.”

Event Operations Team (Grace, Jen, Kailey, & Caroline) with some of their committee members at FTKickoff

Jen Moran, Event Operations Chair, described the integral role the Event Operations Committee plays in making the theme of UDance come to life. She explained, “Our committee has played a huge role in planning and crafting for the day-of UDance. Without them, we would not have been able to create all of our decorations as quickly and efficiently as we have been. They really helped keep us on track to get everything done in time and ensured that all of our decorations were the best they could possibly be!” Grace Cogan, Event Operations Chair, elaborated on the committee’s involvement. She described, “Each member of our committee plays an integral part in the success of the 12-hour dance marathon. Committee members dedicate 2 days a week and additional time from their winter and spring breaks to hand craft decorations to fill The Bob Carpenter Center. ‘The Bob’ is an extremely large space to decorate and we really want it to embody the board game theme. Without all 24 of our committee members, we would not have been able to bring our vision to life.”

Grace also shared a glimpse into what the theme of UDance 2022 means to her. She explained, “‘Until Every Child Gets to Play’ means we will not stop our efforts to fight childhood cancer until every child gets to spend their childhood just being a kid and playing. We hope that this theme reminds everyone how precious childhood is and inspires others to help work toward a world where all kids can have a funfilled childhood. We also hope that the theme will allow all of our B+ Heroes to just be kids and enjoy every moment of UDance on April 24th. I hope that as a UDance community, we can all come together to reflect on Why we Dance and how we can help give every kid a childhood with more chances to play, and less hospital visits.”

While UDance is a year-long effort of fighting childhood cancer, the day-of our 12-hour dance marathon is the one day of the year that we can culminate all of our efforts from the year and celebrate our accomplishments. Most importantly, the day-of UDance is a day to honor our B+ Heroes and families, and to allow children who go through so much to just be kids.

UDance 2022 may be coming to a close with our 12-hour dance marathon on April 24th, but our fight against childhood cancer will not end Until Every Child Gets to Play.

For more information regarding our 12-Hour Dance Marathon, please visit our Day-Of Tab.