As senior Jalynn White and her friends walked through the courtyard, she felt surprised by the crowds of people in the usually open space. Upon closer inspection, she discovered the leadership-led club carnival, and quickly joined in on the fun activities, telling her friends about the games. 

“I was really confused at first, but then I realized what was going on, and I was super excited,” White said. “My favorite part was watching people trying to eat donuts on a string.”   

Held on Jan. 18, the club carnival ran through both lunches and gave students a chance to discover new clubs and win prizes such as candy, stickers, pencils and donuts. 

Leadership teachers Kari Miller and Sarah Bearss oversaw the organization of the club carnival. Besides leadership, the Drawing Club, Young Democrats, and Spanish Honors Society hosted carnival booths during both lunches.

“My favorite part was seeing how many people were participating and enjoying themselves,” Miller said.

Junior Natalie Cazeau helped run the Drawing Club booth, setting up a can-toss game where contestants threw a ball at soda cans and tried to knock down as many cans as they could in three rounds. The winner received two pieces of candy or stickers, while the runner-up only received one piece of candy.

“Just seeing people happy and laughing makes it all worth it,” Cazeau said. 

Junior Guadalupe Maggio, historian of the Spanish Honors Society, also set up a booth during club carnival. Students would toss rings into a Mexican sombrero, and players could win lollipops as a prize. 

“We wanted to keep it easy and fun while portraying the culture of our club,” Maggio said. 

With the success of the club carnival, leadership plans on upscaling the carnival to next year’s homecoming week, which will include more clubs, better prizes and more people.

“This year was a bit of a smaller scale, like a test run,” Miller said. “We’re really glad everyone had fun and it was a huge success.”