By Kelsey Braun ’22, Staff Writer
On November 11, St. John Fisher College’s Teddi Dance for Love celebrated 100 days Until Teddi 39. The day was full of fun virtual challenges on social media for committee members to complete, and prizes were given to members that completed the most. At the end of the day at the Teddi meeting, the announcement was made as to what the Teddi 39 theme will be. A series of Instagram stories featuring paper airplanes with names of different continents revealed that this year’s theme will be “Around the World.”
So, what will Teddi 39 look like this year? “We are trying to make it as interactive as possible. We have a couple of different options that we are choosing from,” Programming Committee Captain Abby King said. “We don’t think that we will fully be in person, but we’re going in between either using spaces on campus to be in person, having a small group in the gym and making the rest virtual.”
This year, all 24 hours of the Teddi 39 dance will be DJed by St. John Fisher College’s DJ Jack Laino. Laino is a senior Media Management major and he is looking forward to staying up the full 24 hours to DJ this year’s event. Teddi members will recognize him from the stage dive that he took after his hour set at the Teddi 38 dance. “I love the audience, and watching everybody jump up and down, chanting or singing the songs,” said Laino. “I would cut the audio and have them yell to me. Seeing them all dance and have a great time —it just makes me feel so warm inside.”
In preparation for this year’s dance, Laino has already started putting together tracks for each hour. “I tested my controller, which is a DJ equipment that works with Zoom,” said Laino. “You plug it into the laptop, select different audio preferences and it all goes through Zoom. I’m hoping there’s going to be some people in front of me, but there’s going to be a lot of Zoom aspects to it.”
Not only is Laino in the process of preparing his music for Teddi, but he is also excited to announce that he is producing merchandise again this year. “So what the plan is right now: four brand new t-shirt designs and it is going to be hopefully more readily available (to anyone interested),” Laino said.
In addition to the event itself looking different this year, committee meetings and events leading up to Teddi have been completely virtual. While there is still a missing feeling of togetherness, there is still some good that has come out of planning for the dance virtually. Each meeting, King and her co- captain Liliana Rucci make it a point to engage the members of the Programming Committee by featuring a celebrity of the week. “I honestly think I’ve gotten to know more people by having our meetings on Zoom,” said King. “It is forcing us to make it as interactive as possible and something to look forward to.”
As the clock counts down to Teddi 39, which is on Feb. 19 to20, 2021, the club continues to put on fundraisers and events that engage students and raise money for Camp Good Days and Special Times. “I really want for us to get that community feel that we get every year even though it will be virtual,” said King. “That’s the most amazing part of Teddi, that we are all able to come together and do this amazing event to raise money for the kids. I hope that we are all able to feel united even though some of us may be separated.”
Stay up to date on upcoming Teddi Events:
Teddi Instagram: @teddidance4love
Teddi TikTok: @teddidance4love
Link to Donate to Teddi 39: https://teddi.sjfc.edu
Link to Sneak Peek DJ Jack Laino Mixes: MixCloud
