Survivor Brentwood

On Sunday, May 29th, Brentwood students competed in Survivor: Brentwood, a dual interhouse event and fundraiser for the victims of the Fort McMurray fire. With four competitive houses competing in eight separate challenges, students and staff fought for superiority in a series of events based on the ones featured on the famous reality television show, ‘Survivor’.  We opened the day with a relay challenge, where students had to run to collect a total of twenty-seven puzzle pieces for their house, then use them to complete a three by three by three cube which gave them the location of two buckets, which they would use to pass water back and forth. Once they collected enough water, their house would win. I won’t lie, it gave me particular pleasure to watch the Mackenzie-Ellis team finish first, taking mere minutes - it gave me even more to watch Whittall-Alex, the dominant Interhouse champions throughout the last few years, struggle to a fourth place finish. But the day was not nearly over, and the wide range of challenges gave everyone a fair chance. Rogers-Allard wiped the floor in Remember, Remember, To The Fifth of September, where the houses were asked questions about our previous school year, and could force one another off our dock and into the ocean. Whittall-Alex chewed up and spat out the competition in Eat Up!, where the houses would roll the dice to pick two random items to throw in a blender - one solid, one liquid. Concoctions included bread and fish oil, spinach and ranch, chicken and hot sauce, rice vinegar and hot peppers, and so many more that were hilariously awful. Mackenzie-Ellis, along with winning the opening challenge, also won the closing one, where staff members had to balance a ball on a wooden disk, adding a second and then a third as time went on (when the students ran this challenge, Rogers-Allard secured the win). Privett-Hope, despite a strong effort, walked away without a single win despite a lot of close finishes. My guess is that they were banking on our cancelled challenges - most notably Sumo - that were cut due to time constraints. “Now wait,” you might be thinking, “you said this was a fundraiser, but this just sounds like a lot of challenges!” You are correct! There are a lot of challenges, and this was precisely how we raised our money! Students, family, and friends were invited to sponsor teams, where they agreed to donate money each time their house won a challenge, as well as providing standard donations if they chose. The added incentive of knowing that their performance in these challenges directly corresponded to how much they’d raise for the victims of the biggest natural disaster in recent Canadian history pushed students to compete to the limit, holding uncomfortable poses, throwing themselves in the ocean to absorb as much water as possible, and running back and forth as they tried to memorize a series of playing cards. While the numbers still need to be tallied, I can say without reservations that this succeeded in its ultimate goal of helping the people of Fort Mac. Wyatt T, Ellis ‘16