The air was tense on Thursday, and EIU’s campus pond was packed with excited onlookers.
Residence assistants were huddled up with their teammates. Contestants confided with one another, glossing over every detail of their boats. Who would win the race? With Neighborhood Week coming to a close, the halls end off on one last competition: the cardboard boat race.
“Neighborhood Week is a time for the residence halls to cooperate and have a bit of fun,” Mark Hudson, resident housing director, said.
With the theme for this year of Neighborhood Week being video games, each residence hall had its boat dedicated to its respective game.
Themes included the titles Minecraft, Among Us and Animal Crossing to name just a few. Contestants, when prompted, would swim from one side of the pond, switch out players and swim back. The first three to get their boat back without sinking would be crowned winners.
Alexandra Bradley, the event host, said, “Neighborhood Week is a great way to unify residents from the halls, inspire some healthy competition and give people the opportunity to meet new people. I met a lot of my friends from this event actually.”
The winner of the Neighborhood Week competitions would win a large golden mailbox that resident members could sign, Bradley said. The winning hall would keep the box until the next Neighborhood Week event.
Taylor Hall’s resident assistant Peter Walker was on standby with Taylor Hall’s viking-esque boat.
“We’re pretty confident, it’s strongly reinforced and has a killer design,” he said.
When asked if the snakes or the turtles should make the contestants afraid, Walker confidently commented, “No, they should be afraid of us.”
Autumn Dallymeyer from Pemberton Hall managed the construction of the boxy Pac-Man boat.
“We have the most planning, having a strong group of three working on the boat design. We’re pretty confident,” Dallymeyer said. “There’s no exposed cardboard, all of it is covered with tape. We’re extremely enthusiastic.”
President of panther leads of Andrews Hall Ella Alley said the Boat Royale was made within 24 hours.
According to Alley, the cardboard collected from the beginning of the year was thrown away by accident, but the building service workers of Andrews resupplied the amount of cardboard needed from boxes in storage. The other supplies, Alley said, were purchased or reused from last year.
“We’re extremely confident we’ll win,” Alley said. “We’ve been winning first place in a lot of events. A majority of the council hall has been freshmen, which is exciting to see,”
It seemed that there was a general consensus; with proper planning, high morale and plenty of duct tape, the boats would be ready to go.
With boat judging conducted by Amy Odwarka and Mark Hudson out of the way, it was time for the race. Teams were ordered to carry their boats to the waterline.
The anticipation had students nervously glancing at each ship. Who would paddle to the finish line, and who would sink to failure?
With a few whistles blown, prompting the boats to be drug from shore into the ponds, the race had begun.
Taylor Hall’s ship cracked, gradually sinking after being dragged into the water, preventing the team from getting far.
Pemberton Hall’s boat lagged behind, its box-like shape refusing to cruise through the waters. The Boat Royale from Andrews Hall led up ahead with Stevenson’s Minecraft boat lagging not far behind.
Powell-Norton’s, Ford’s and McKinney’s boats lowered themselves into the water as they approached the other side of the pond, contestants were forced to lug them back while swimming. Andrews straggled behind once they switched paddlers to get back.
The current and winds rocked the Boat Royale back and forth. Stevenson’s Minecraft boat stole the lead, swiftly gaining distance after paddlers were switched out ashore.
Lincoln Hall’s boat the Frogger took a large leap, building momentum and securing second place. Andrews, finally able to pull through against tides, made it to shore in third.
Bradley called everyone over to the pavilion to announce the awards.
Design awards for the boats played a part in points for Neighborhood Week, strong craftsmanship being the leading factor.
Landing in third place for design was McKinney, second place Lincoln and first place was Taylor.
Boat race results were as follows: third place was Andrew’s Boat Royale, second place was Lincoln’s Frogger and Stevenson’s Minecraft boat made it to shore in first.
Stevenson’s panther lead’s vice president Peyton Daniel helped plan, construct and paint the boat.
“The whole goal is to have no water get in,” he said. “The problem with last year was water would flood into the bottom of the boat and just sink the whole thing.”
Daniel said that Steveson Hall began planning last week. Construction took around three to four days to complete, the total time making the boat being five days with painting included.
Six students helped with the construction of the Frogger over in Lincoln. Asha Head, president of Panther Leads for Lincoln Hall, said layers and thickness with lots of tape helped out a lot.
“You have to have the faith of a mustard seed, tiny but mighty,” she said. “Still, we were terrified. We met our boat contestant by running into her in the halls. She was offered free Chick-fil-A for a week as compensation, and she deserved it.”
Unaware, everyone had beat a record unknowingly; for the first time in 10 years, lifeguards did not have to jump in to save anyone.
Ultimately, Andrews Hall culminated the most points overall during Neighborhood Week. They went back to the dorm excitedly sporting the golden mailbox, a true victory royale.
Asha Hoak can be reached at at 581-2812 or at ahoak@eiu.edu.
