Relay For Life: Top 5 Booths
From outdoor cookouts to Forte Magazine’s Guitar Hero, Relay for Life was packed with exciting booths and tasty food, living up to its expectations as one of the most anticipated events of the spring. While each booth proved to be inventive and fun, we decided to break down the event into a list of our top five favorite booths: the squash team’s pie booth, Amen Jail, the Cycling team’s booth, Hoyt Heels and Dunbar’s kissing station.
1. Pie Booth: Ever feel tired of a teacher giving you hard tests and want to let some stress out, or simply want to see a close friend humiliated? Most students at Exeter would answer this question with a definite “yes,” which is why the squash team’s pie booth was so popular this year.
At a booth outside, students payed tickets in exchange for pies which they could throw at the student or teacher positioned in the booth. Students commended the booth for its originalty — as upper Zanny Merullo explained, “The opportunity to throw something in your teacher’s face doesn't arise often at this school, no matter how much we may wish for and imagine it.”
2. Amen Jail: While Exonians always enjoy exploring new opportunities, tradition is still highly regarded across campus. This statement proved true at Relay for Life this year, as the infamous tradition of Amen Jail returned with just as large of a presence.
For just three tickets, students could order a friend to a ten minute sentence in the “jail,” a flimsy wooden structure decorated with colorful paper strips and surrounded by Amen guards. To be released, students could wait out their time, bribe the booth owners with a couple of tickets or wait for a friend to “bail” them out.
According to lower Hilary Aristotle, as students sought revenge on their friends, the booth fell into an endless cycle of students getting trapped, escaping and then casting in other students as payback.
“You get to put your friends in jail for a few minutes, which is pretty awesome,” she said. “But you obviously want to get yourself out and get back at the person, right? So then you pay tickets to get yourself out, and then put your friend in.”
3. Cycling Booth: Similar to Amen Jail, students welcomed the cycling booth back with cheers and laughter since it was such a hit last year. The booth was composed of a roller on which a member of the cycling team would ride one at a time. Students traded tickets to receive three dodgeballs to throw at the cyclist, in an attempt to knock him or her off the bike and onto a mattress on the gym floor.
Lower Thomas Carlock described it as “one of his favorite booths.” His favorite part was watching the reactions of students falling off of the bikes — some reactions he described as “priceless.”
“When I almost hit my friend off the bike his face lit up with an expression of terror that I will never let him forget. Its always fun to have the chance to add a little bit of fright into a dorm mate’s life,” he said.
4. Hoyt Heels: As another booth brought back for the second time by popular demand, Hoyt Heels provided students with the opportunity to put a friend in heels for a walk around the gym. The booth had heels of all sizes, from a 61/2 in woman to a 15 in men. It was filled with mostly male nominations, which according to lower Nada Zohayr, “provided lots of laughter.”
As one of the captains of the booth, Zohayr attributed the dorm’s decision to host the same booth as its “large success last year.” It certainly maintained its high popularity again, getting over 100 nominations and raising over 50 dollars.
Many students were drawn to the booth’s creativity. With several photo and dress up booths around, some students such as lower Jesus Rivera came up with inventive ways to use the booths together in fun scenarios.
“I think it’s great because it allows a lot of people to do something they normally wouldn't do,” Rivera said. “Last year my roommate, Eric Tang, and I got “married” while using Hoyt Heels, so this year we renewed our vows while using Hoyt Heels again. I’ve gotten much better at walking in them.”
5. Kissing Booth: This year’s kissing booth was hosted by Dunbar once again. The concept was straightforward, for a couple of tickets a student could receive a kiss on the cheek from one of the girls manning the booth. For the students who stopped by and the ones running it, the booth provided many awkward and amusing situations between both friends and strangers.
“I really enjoyed joking around with my friends and coercing strangers to let us imprint them for cancer,” prep Mila DeGuere said, who helped run the booth. “We were pretty popular among students. It was awkward when people were like, ‘um no,’ but overall, participating in the booth was uplifting.”