Students from different grade levels went head to head in a schoolwide competition the night before the homecoming assembly.
Homecoming dominated Carlmont all throughout last week. One of the many activities from homecoming week was an event called “In It To Win It.”
In It To Win It is a competition that puts different grade levels against each other; the event welcomes all of Carlmont to come and get involved. ASB organizes In It To Win It every year and has been for the past four years. This year, it was held on Oct. 24, and in correspondence to the theme of Homecoming, it was named, “A Night In The Tropics.”
The idea for this competition blossomed from former ASB student Tori Miranda. Sophie Penn, another former ASB student, continued the tradition once Miranda graduated.
“In It to Win It was born four years ago, and it’s really useful in the sense that within three hours of activities, that group of kids become really close,” said Theo Korolev, a senior and the vice president of ASB. “You are able to… stretch out and talk to more people that you wouldn’t have talked to before, and [you] get to learn people’s names and who they are.”
The people in charge of the event are the ASB members that are part of the Assemblies Commission. The group started planning for the event in September and had other commissions help call attention to the event. For instance, the Multimedia Commission made graphics and geofilters to publicize the night.
There were many efforts made by the Assemblies Commission beforehand to prepare for this competition.
“In order to plan, we are just making sure we have signups and that food allergies are completely covered for the provided dinner. We need to make sure that we are in contact with everyone, so we got all the phone numbers,” said Olive Peschel, a senior and the Assemblies Commission supervisor. “Basically, we’re just making sure that we have all the supplies for the games, pilot testing the games, making sure they run smoothly, and forming a schedule for the night that will give us a time limit for the games.”
According to Peschel, the Assemblies Commission had a Remind-101, which was the code that allowed the Assemblies Commission to reach out to those interested in the competition and to remind them about important information and times.
About two weeks before the night of the activity, the Assemblies Commission held a meeting with all of ASB to elaborate on the purpose of the event and to remind ASB members to help spread word of it.
Jim Kelly, the ASB Advisor, also gave encouragement to the members of ASB in order to motivate them to keep this competition going.
“There is always the potential for a big drop off for things [event ideas] once the original person leaves. It’s really difficult to follow up with the person who originally came up with the idea. A lot of times, the original idea falls apart once that person graduates. It would be a shame if this one [In It To Win It] fell apart because it’s a super cool night,” Kelly said.
The night of the event was abundant of roaring cheers and friendly competition. Students were teamed up by grade and partook in a series of games, such as water balloon toss and dodgeball. If a team won an activity, they earned points for their class.
“I liked the pool noodle game because it was stressful but really fun,” said Hannah Schnitz, a junior.
While many students enjoyed the event, some thought improvements could be made.
“I think it’s [the competition] pretty great the way it is, but if I did have authority, I would probably control it [the event] a little bit better and maybe even add microphones so we can hear the instructors better,” said Carly Ramirez, a sophomore.
After three hours of food and games, the night came to an end. According to Melina Dimick, a junior and member of the Assemblies Commission, expectations for the event were met.
“This is actually the most successful it has ever been in terms of numbers. We had 79 people respond to the remind [the Remind-101], but we definitely had more people just show up to play. All the games were super fun and had high participation. We had all the right supplies. We had new and creative ideas. I just think it went really well,” Dimick said.
Although Dimick felt satisfied with the activity’s results, she thought there were components she and her commission should have considered beforehand.
Dimick said, “If I had another chance at planning the same event, I would get more decorations to make it look more tropical-themed.”
Overall, students enjoyed the event and had a positive response to it.
Liam Dowling, a sophomore, said: “If this event was unchanged, I will still come. [I had] a great time.”
