Hoco 2.0
In just two weeks of school, the hustle and bustle of homecoming week had been yanked out of the grasp of students. No more homecoming game, no more homecoming dance. But no worries, the upperclassmen have come to save the day.
After being disappointed that homecoming passed by so quickly, seniors Nick Oertli, Josh Eady, and Suzy Smith were the masterminds behind the idea to host HOCO 2.0. “Homecoming is such a blast so we thought why not try to do it again,” Suzy Smith said.
The redo homecoming will take place Saturday, October 11 from 7 p.m-12 a.m. at the Thousand Oaks Teen Center and is open to students from all high schools. Tickets were sold at $10 each until Wednesday, September 30th before they were raised to $15 a piece.
While Nick Oertli was the first to come up with the idea, the three seniors had been working together to pull the dance off. “When Nick came to me with the idea, I thought it was great, so I gave him a bunch of ideas and logistics we needed to think about,” Smith said.
One logistic was finding somewhere to host the event. “Eventually we called around and the teen center gave us their overwhelming support, offering us some equipment and security for a small price,” Suzy Smith said.
After figuring out a venue, their next task was to get their third man (Josh Eady) on board. “Nick and I went to Josh Eady, who is a DJ and has a bunch of his own equipment and asked him if he would be down to DJ,” Smith said. In response, Eady was “super stoked” and immediately started helping with the details.
Oertli, Smith, and Eady decided to get black-lights to match their theme of white out/neon and after discussing how to sell tickets, the dance details “eventually all came together.”
The seniors think HOCO 2.0 seems to be on the road to success. “The feedback from students has been great. People are super excited for it,” Suzy said. “We are hoping to get a good turn out.” Students have been tweeting about #redohoco and sharing the flyer for the event.
There may not be any more homecoming games, but hey, here comes another “hoco” dance.
