(Courtesy/ Dr. Morris) Layout: Stephanie L./Staff

The junior class won the second CA-Ditarod, a Service Board relay race that kicked off this year’s Kids 4 Kids season, planned with advisor, Ms. Bening and Service Board, President Lila P. and Katie N., Emily N., Ashley H., Camille B. The purpose of thus event is to get students excited about the fall food and clothing drive. Twenty-four boxes are set up around the school for donations.

“One of the most rewarding parts was seeing how excited and engaged everyone was throughout the event,” Parish said. “I loved watching participants connect with their teammates and develop strategies to complete the course as quickly as possible.”

Each grade had three teams, made up of one student from each advisory. The course started by the carpool loop. Stations included box making, jumping jacks, can stacking, hanging clothes and a trash toss. Everyone on a team had to do at least one station.

Planning started about a month before the race. The first job was ordering supplies, including life jackets. After that, the group met weekly to sort out logistics and set up the stations.

“We started by looking at last year’s CA-Ditarod and considering what worked well and what we could improve,” Parish said, not expecting to work with so many people across the school. The planners met with Mr. Dow and Mr. Thompson to coordinate dates, and then plan with facilities for tables and chairs–plus, borrowing speakers and stopwatches from athletics with help from Mrs. DeMarco.

Organizing the teams was the hardest part. Planners had to balance advisory representation, student availability and injuries. “It made creating balanced teams more complicated than I initially expected,” Parish said.

They also had to decide which shapers would run each station and where the course would go. “There were a lot of small details that went into planning,” said Parish, “and I think the experience gave me a much greater appreciation for the behind-the-scenes work of newer events like this.” 

Long term, Parish hopes the CA-Ditarod will become a Service tradition and that the Middle School maintains it annual Bingo Food Drive. “This would allow us to involve more students across different divisions in supporting Kids 4 Kids,” she said. 

Miranda Bradner-Young initiated the CA-Ditarod last year. “I think we were able to build on the success Miranda established last year while making improvements of our own,” she said. “There’s still room for the event to grow, but I’m really proud of what we accomplished this year, and I’m excited to see how the future shapers continue to develop it.”