Many aspects of THON 2013 could be considered a logistical nightmare. Although THON 2014 hasn’t been entirely glitch free, the Executive Committee has come up with new, effective ways to maintain order while assuring the dancers’ health and safety are a top priority. Just this year, the Rules and Regulations committee launched the Dancer Support Program.

In this new system, each dancer choses two predetermined friends or family members that they would want to see —  even if the PASS system wasn’t working, which is essentially an inevitability at this point. Dancers were given two passes that look something like this (colors vary depending on dancer number):

Dancers gave these tickets to their supporters about a week before THON and sent the guest emails to R&R. R&R then contacted “the chosen ones” and sent them a specific time Sunday morning that they would have to arrive at the West entrance of the Bryce Jordan Center, between gates A and D, to see their dancer for 25 minutes each.

These supporters will not meet the dancers on the THON floor. Instead, the dancers will be escorted somewhere else to meet. Dancers know that they will meet these supporters but don’t know when or where.

It is great to see R&R being cognizant of pass issues and making initiatives to ensure that the dancers are able to get support from loved ones during their 46 hours on their feet. We will find out today how well this new system works.