A LEGISLATIVE COMMEMORATION, Celebrating Mitchell High School's show choir, Friend de Coup.

WHEREAS, Mitchell High School hired Jeff Gemar as its vocal music director, who introduced show choir to Mitchell and the state of South Dakota in 1984, establishing a choir soon to be known as Friend de Coup, or "friends take over" in French, in honor of Jason Kaemingk, a member of the choir who tragically lost his life in a pedestrian-car accident; and

WHEREAS, Friend de Coup has successfully and consistently competed against other choirs at the local, regional, and national level, despite being the only competitive show choir at Mitchell High School, a school with an average enrollment of seven-to-eight hundred students, competing against schools across the country with enrollments many times larger; and

WHEREAS, Friend de Coup finished its first ever undefeated show choir season in 2021, which was capped off by the first-ever Virtual National Championship held by Showchoirlive.com, and continues to be successful to start its 2022 competition season:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT COMMEMORATED, by the Ninety-Seventh Legislature of the State of South Dakota, that Friend de Coup be honored and congratulated on its 38 years of musical excellence and competitive success.