Taylor Massey
March 30, 2024
Before the 15 hours of dancing began, Dance Marathon participants were given the opportunity to engage in several rounds of low-stakes, lighthearted bingo, courtesy of the Northwestern University Student Organizations and Activities (SOA) Office.
SOA partnered with NUDM to entertain participants before the event started, allowing committee directors and chairs to complete last-minute tasks before the marathon kicked off. The first shuttles bringing dancers from campus to Welsh-Ryan Arena left at 5:30 p.m. and dancing did not start until 8:00 p.m. This meant that the earliest-arriving participants had over two hours to kill. The game took place in the arena's Wilson Club area, where a pre-marathon dinner was also served to dancers.
Hope Jordan, an undergraduate assistant for the SOA office, said she and her coworkers wanted to host an accessible game for NUDM participants.
“We picked bingo because bingo is something that is relatively low skill, low effort, yet has high reward,” she said. “We had some really amazing prizes picked out, and we thought that would be a good way to keep everybody engaged.”
First-year dancer Jillian Moore said she thought bingo was a great way to have fun with her friends while being competitive.
“I was having a lot of fun,” she said. “I was talking a ton with my friends. We were making jokes. It was a great social opportunity because it’s a game that really only depends on having a lot of luck, and it’s just a fun way to engage with others.”
Some participants took their dedication to the game incredibly seriously and were determined to win one of the many prizes available; groans of disappointment and shouts of excitement could be frequently heard in the Wilson Club,
“People were getting pretty hyped about the prizes,” Moore said. “One of my friends won a Taylor Swift vinyl, and she’s super happy about it.”