Let the Games Begin

Posted by Maria Costasnovo in Campus

“I’m sorry about the mess in my room,” says Sydney Latchaw while she opens the door. But it’s clear from her room how organized Latchaw is: her books are perfectly arranged, the kitchen is so clean you can see your reflection and the bed is perfectly made.

Latchaw also is using her organizational skills to pull together ‘The Hunger Games’ for all the residents of the campus, an idea she’s had for two years.

“I thought it was going to be this big,” she says, indicating her initial belief that organizing the event wouldn’t be too overwhelming, “but I think that as soon as I started to write everything down, it was like ‘oh this is all a hard work, we’re going to need all the RAs on board.'”

The Hunger Games is a movie based on a novel written by Suzanne Collins. In the story, an apocalyptic event destroys civilization and a new nation called Panem, divided in 12 districts, is established in North America. Each year, two young representatives from every district are selected to participate in The Hunger Games, a televised fight to the death.

“I know this last time the movie came out there was a huge group of students that got really jazzed about it,” Latchaw says, “So a friend and I were like ‘well, we could do Hunger Games on campus.’ And so we came up with this whole system of challenges and stuff like that to mentally test the participants.”

Even though, according to Latchaw, the organization of the game is hard, she has almost everything planned out. To start, she will set out boxes in the dorms’ hallways, in which students can enter their names.

“And then at the Vampire Ball, which is going to be another event that we are going to celebrate on the campus, we are going to read them out loud, and the participants are going to be chosen. And then, on Nov. 16,  [the day the event is scheduled for] they’re all going to be in their district colors. There’s two people from every district and they are going to go through a series of 10 challenges and who ever gets all the color medallions first wins the Hunger Games.”

All student residents can participate, and the RAs will run the event.

“When I was an RA, I did my little hall events, but this is my first big event. It’s a lot to think about, a lot to do. The hardest part is figuring out how we are going to delegate, so our group of RAs can handle certain of things, so can get it all done.  But it’s such a huge event. It’s totally overwhelming,” Latchaw says.

The event is going to be officially celebrated on Nov. 16, close to the date that Catching Fire hits the theaters. However, you can start to apply to participate by the end of this week.

“If you think you can handle it you should enter. If you don’t, don’t bother,” Latchaw says.