Over the past month, Boarding Council (BC) hosted various activities for the boarding community to come together at Concord Academy; among those were the Donut-on-a-String eating competition, the summer and September birthdays celebration, and the Iron Chef challenge.
On September 22, boarders gathered around the playground behind the Performing Arts Center (P.A.C.) after study hall for the first house comp of the school year. Heads of House hung donuts off of a string and whoever finished the donut the first earned one point for their house. Wheeler led the six houses with two points total from the 9th grade and the 11th grade round, while Admadjaja and Bradford each collected one point from the 10th grade and the 12th grade round respectively.
The next Wednesday, September 29, boarders united in the Stu-Fac to sing “Happy Birthday” to members of the community born in June, July, August, and September. The birthday celebration originally started in individual houses, but BC began to host monthly celebrations for the whole boarding community to be more inclusive. On this note, there was also a wider variety of cakes offered after the celebration, which ranged from red velvet to vanilla cakes, including gluten-free and nut-free options.
Another major house comp—the Iron Chef challenge—was held on October 7, right before Family Weekend. For the Iron Chef challenge, each house was given the same bag of ingredients and had to create a dish of mashed potatoes and a dip for chips as the side. Each house had roughly an hour to prepare the meal and clean up the kitchen after 7:40 p.m. and everyone was to be in the Student Health and Athletic Center (SHAC) by 9:00 p.m. Three judges, Topi Dasgupta, Will Tucker, and Nick Hiebert, marked points for each house based on the appearance, taste, and creativity of the served dish as well as the tidiness of the kitchen and the number of people who participated.
Hobson, which originally had zero house points, gained three points by placing first in the Iron Chef challenge. ChaeWon Bae ’22, one of the heads of Hobson, proudly introduced their dish from “Hobson Fine Dining.” Wheeler came in second under their main chef Gary Sun ’22 and Head of House Charlie Apolinsky ’22, while Haines and Bradford tied for third.
Overall, the Iron Chef challenge was a joyful bonding activity right before boarders head into fall break. Head of Boarders Melanie Tapia ’22 was delighted to see the enormous support for each house from the boarding community and shared, “BC, in general, is super excited to make new traditions, [and] to bring back traditions. All the work that we do, that we plan during orientation is to make this year go smoothly.”