By Austin C. and Turner L.
With a need to build unity and have fun at the same time, Jan Cheripko, Mike Argiros, and Caren Jacques came together for a solution. “One way to create that sense of unity was to have a competition among all the houses,” said Talbot House Leader Jan Cheripko.
Cheripko was referring to the two-day competition he helped put together with Mike Argiros, President of the Family Foundation School, and Caren Jacques, leader of Smith House. “We got a lot of help from Cindy Argiros, Alex Caroll, Shari Caroll, and Sid Parham,” said Cheripko.
The contest involved 12 events, with each house receiving points based on how well they performed in their event. Bonus points were awarded for enthusiasm.
The events consisted of academic trivia, chess, Risk, art, basketball, volleyball, Ultimate Frisbee, fishing, horseshoes, cleaning, a relay race, and an oral presentation. Each event was weighted differently based on what it involved. For example, first place in the oral presentation was worth 24 points, while first place in Ultimate Frisbee was worth 12 points.
The students were only allowed to participate in one event (except for cleaning, the relay race, and the oral presentation, in which everyone participated), and each event had a minimum number of spots that needed to be filled. “In order for them to do well, the houses had to accurately and objectively assess their strengths and weaknesses, and put the students in the places where they would do the most good,” said Cheripko.
The house with the most points at the end of the competition won an overnight trip, second place won a pool party, third place a pizza party, and fourth, fifth, and sixth places got to make their own sundaes.
“I think everybody was very enthusiastic. One that I was impressed with was Wilson House. I think they had a great attitude, everyone did, but they really had a great attitude. Also, all of the staff pitched in to help with the events,” said Cheripko.
The battle was close, and in the end it came down to the oral presentation. “I thought the oral presentations were good. A lot of them were unique and had ideas that were relative to what they were doing. One thing I liked is you could hear everybody, and that was a huge improvement,” said Cheripko.
Lake House’s 24 points rocketed them into first place, winning them an overnight trip to Boyds Mills Press in Honesdale, Pa. Talbot House came in second, Betton in third (coming up only one point short of Talbot), fourth was Mann House, fifth was Smith, and Wilson House came in sixth place.
“I think everybody had a good time, and we will certainly do something like this in the future,” said Cheripko.
At the end of the day, even the people who did not fare as well in the tournament were satisfied to have at least participated in the activities and have an opportunity to build unity. At first what turned out to be self-pity because we did not want to go through change ended up becoming a blessing in disguise. These are the changes that occurred at the tournament which made it different from most tournaments.
