Bryan Laprise
The 2023 Winter Carnival is over. Everyone can agree it's been an eventful one. This year was the return of a completely normal, traditional carnival. With the school-wide opening and closing ceremonies like before the pandemic. Danica Montgomery, Student Activities Coordinator said she had a lot of fun planning her second carnival, and that having less restrictions "left a little more room for creativity and diversification of events."
The carnival spirit and hype were definitely present in the school, starting a week early with the "Posters for Points" competition. Our cafeteria was filled with posters from each of the four teams; the blue Gremlins, purple Armadillos, green Lizards and red Tasmanian Devils, which spell out GALT. The windows were covered with so many posters that it stopped some of the sunlight from going through!
Every team set out to win the Carnival Shield. The Lizards wanted to maintain their winning status, claiming their fourth victory in a row. The Devils wanted their revenge, losing by a mere 7 points in 2022. The Gremlins and the Armadillos both put in maximal effort to try to lose their bad reputations, and finally win.
Image courtesy of Yearbook Committee
Our level 5 Carnival Reps were hard at work trying to increase participation, and bring up the hype and team spirit. Gremlins representative Olivia Learned said, "my favourite part [of carnival] was the family aspect that our team had. Everyone supported each other and the energy on Carnival was better than we could have asked." Alisa Out-Sin, a representative from the Devils, said her favorite part of carnival was seeing everyone coming together and seeing the school covered in posters, much similar to Adewel Pennec, a Lizards team captain. Armadillos rep Valérie Papillon says her's is, "coming together as a community in our school rather than staying in our cliques." Each team made their hype videos, which were posted on Galt's Facebook page, in a race to see which team could get the most family, friends and Piper alumni to like their video, and win points for their team.
Ms. Mckinven, a cycle two English teacher said, "I think [carnival] gives a chance for certain students to shine in areas they may not usually. It brings staff and teachers together, who don't get to interact with the students they've had in a few years. It gets everyone working together."
Montgomery added, "Carnival is a traditional event but also an evolving event. As such, we really do try to diversify the activities and include new activities every year so that students engage and participate. The event means something different to everyone, but it's great to see the spirit and enthusiasm from a lot of students as they compete for their "team" in whatever way they can. For some, that spirit is rooted in competition, trying their best to win 1st, for others it's through participating and trying something new. The cool part about Carnival is it both earn you points as most events have both a competitive and participatory element."
This year saw the rise of new activities such as the inflatable obstacle course, and a staff-only event: egg toss. Classic and beloved events such as tug of war, dodgeball, the dance competition, cupcake decorating, wheelbarrow races, the student egg toss and Kahoot trivia returned. Smaller, knowledge and creativity based events such as drawing contests, the dad joke faceoff and Scategories took place.
In the end, to quote the words of Mr. Laplante during the closing ceremony, "the Devils made a remarkable comeback," during Carnival Week. They ended up securing second place. The Gremlins took the Shield away from the Lizards, the Armadillos taking third place.
Image courtesy of Olivia Learned
Final Scores:
Gremlins: 1597 pts (+129.5)
Tasmanian Devils: 1467.5 pts (+384.5)
Armadillos: 1083 pts (+139.5)
Lizards: pts 943.5
Event Winners:
Gremlins:
Posters for Points
Wheelbarrow Races
Wacky Skis
Kahoot
Capture the Flag Obstacle Course
Nicotine Drawing Contest
Dance Competition
Karaoke
Broomball
Volleyball
Staff Egg Toss
Cornhole
Trivia Challenge Wheel
Pop Culture Trivia
Scattergories
Tasmanian Devils:
Knockout
Nicotines Word Games
Memorize & Recite
Weightlifting
Woodsman
Jigsaw
T.W.L.O.H.A.
Footprinting
Chess
Tug of War
Engine Build
Charades
Egg Toss
Ball Balancing Station
Human Sled Dog
Dodgeball
Armadillos:
Ping Pong Paddle Flip
Soda Tab
Magic Carpet
Taste Test & Trivia
Ping Pong Basketball
Cupcake Decorating
Dad Joke
Wild Winter Canoe Race
Lizards:
Non Smoking Bingo
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