According to Oak Harbor wrestler Steven Souza, any event that allows him to wear his uniform to school is A-OK by him.

“We love being in our singlets, are you kidding me?” he said while surrounded by his spandex-clad teammates in the high school gym Thursday, Feb. 3.

But the event, which involved the entire student body and spanned throughout the school, wasn’t designed so the wrestling team could strut their stuff. It was designed to enhance unity, collaboration and school spirit, and the second annual OHHS Lip Dub did just that.

A lip dub is a video project that captures numerous participants lip synching to a chosen song. The footage for the video must be done in a single take with no edits. This year, the event was conducted during a sixth period assembly in which every student participated. The kids were taught different parts of the song and were lined up on a designated route throughout the building dressed up in spirited clothing or their athletic/club uniforms. The challenge was hitting each group at the synchronized time and getting all of the students in the gym before the grand finale at the end of the song.

“It’s stressful to get everybody in their place in five minutes, but it’s also really fun,” sophomore Summer Anderson said. Anderson is one of the students in teacher Chris Douthitt’s sixth period broadcast and communication class that assisted with the project spearheaded by the Media Arts Club.

Usually the lip dub is a competition between local high schools, but this year, the video teachers from Anacortes, Sedro-Woolley, Mount Vernon, LaConner and Burlington-Edison decided to scrap the contest and simply put on a lip dub spring show which will premiere in a few months.

Student Khadijah Curry said the media students have been planning the lip dub since the beginning weeks of the school year.

“It’s been on our minds, and we’ve been constantly thinking about it,” Curry said. “We shot an email out to the teachers and said this is your class’ block, when you see the people coming and hear the music you just ad-lib and do something crazy.”

The Oak Harbor students chose to do “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley. They did three takes of the song, and though Douthitt said all of the takes had merit, the third was the most successful.

“I think that one of the best parts of our video is that most of the teachers and administrators are in it too. And they ham it up as much as anyone,” he said. “The video also gives a very quick tour of about half of our newly-remodeled high school and shows how cool it is.”

Douthitt said he may consider doing a screening in Oak Harbor before posting the video online. For information on the video, visit the Oak Harbor High School Lip Dub 2011 Facebook page.