On the night of Thursday, January 16, students, parents and faculty flocked to the Winter Carnival, to throw pie, eat curry and take silly photos. “Winter Carnival is a time for the entire Townsend Harris family to forget about the upcoming finals week and have a night to just enjoy themselves,” said junior Yash Sharma.
Sophomore Joyee Mok, a member of Key Club and one of the faces behind the pie, said “It’s been a two-year ongoing tradition for me to get pied. It’s really fun because I like making other people happy, and if it’s by a little thing like me getting pied, I’m fine with it.” After the pie-ing, many students spotted her walking on two towels in order to reach the showers coated head to toe in whipped cream.
“Actually, it was pretty hectic during the setup.” said the president of Key Club, Senior Abbey Li, “We had to cover half the janitor’s room in cheap plastic tablecloths because we didn’t want them getting any extra work and having to clean up after us because the whipped cream was going to get all over the floor and walls.”
On the other side of the cafeteria, the Seekers hosted a “tapioca shooting” and a bake-sale. One of the presidents, Senior Stephanie Loo said “We sold baked goods and custom-made parfaits with granola, fruit, and yogurt. We also had a game, which is our main attraction and a tradition that has existed for a really long time. One person wears a target and someone tries to ‘shoot’ them with tapioca.” This year, they switched it up “we let anyone wear the target, so people had fun shooting their friends.”
SAGES also tried something new. Junior Nijah Phills said ,“In the past years we have done fake marriages, but the limbo was by far more successful!” Even the faculty joined in on the festivities. “I asked [Mr. Barbetta], expecting him to say no, but then he said okay. He did pretty okay; Taylor Johnson beat him. But let me tell you, Ms. Oberlander killed it.”
The gym, also teeming with participants, boasted a variety of events, including fencing matches with foam swords, an obstacle course hosted by the track team, and one on one basketball games along with food. Sophomore Cindy Wu, as the captain of the JV basketball team, was responsible for organizing their event and noted it’s success, However, she did have some regrets. “I would love to do it next year; except I want to explore the carnival more next year and look at the wonderful booths that the other clubs/ teams had.”
The most popular part of the carnival, the photo-booth, created long lines outside the SU Store and a very frustrated Mr. Jackson Loo, who used his photo-booth called Loo NYC Productions to take photos of the participants. As the fair came to an end, students surrounded S.U. president Judy Kwon, begging her to let them get one last picture. “The photo-booth is a time for friends to bond and for spontaneity to take over, for memories that last forever.” says sophomore Matthew Sullivan.
Of course, not everyone was focused on the events, math teacher and track coach Mr. Connor brought his kids which resulted in a flurry of Instagram pictures with his daughter and son. Sophomore Fahim Nousad commented, “It was really cute how he and his son were sword fighting and also when they took on sophomore Yasmeen Ally in the obstacle course, that was pretty funny.” Science teacher Mr. Porzio also brought his child, who zoomed around the entire fair.
The carnival isn’t all fun and games; it took a tremendous amount of effort, with a lot of the work falling on the shoulders of club liason Karen Su. She helped organize the layout of activities, what needed to be done in terms of advertising, and organizing meetings for club/team representatives. Fortunately, everyone’s work paid off. “I definitely felt a lot of school spirit and support radiating from the school community as I walked through the carnival,” she said.
