Activities - NJCL Convention - 2002 - Daily Highlights - Wednesday, July 31

If it's Tuesday, it must be Marathon... the race, not the place. The early-rising runners among us made their way to the Arboretum at 7 a.m. to participate in the running of the Marathon (at 1 mile, it's just a tad bit shy of the 26+ mile standard distance). Coming out victorious in this year's edition of the race were Win Rogers of DC and Carolyn Auchter of Illinois in the Junior Division and David Schaengold of Ohio and Caitlin Jones of Pennsylvania in the Senior Division.

Budding authors also had an opportunity to show (er... write) their stuff as the Essay contest was held this morning as well. This year's topic was crime and punishment in the ancient world and participants were presented several translated passages from Roman historians and other writers dealing with themes of justice in the ancient world. They were then asked to answer one of several questions, using the concepts in the passages to support their positions.

General Assembly II began after a rousing show of spirit by the delegates, today wearing their respective state T-shirts for the aptly titled "State of the Union" theme. Roll Call of States was the highlight of this assembly as representatives of each state announce the number of delegates, sponsors, and chaperones attending from their state or province, in sometimes creative ways. This year, Texas, with 240, had the greatest number of delegates present, with Florida also having over 200 attendees.

Other official business for this assembly included the announcement of the NJCL Web Site Contest winners and recognition of those webmasters in attendance at convention, presentation of the Publicity awards, and a welcome from the American Classical League, delivered by president Ken Kitchell.

Afternoon activities included something for everyone. In the Ludi arena, were the first rounds of Chess as well as soccer in the late afternoon. [Unfortunately, the soccer matches couldn't be completed due to a lack of water stemming from an advisory issued by the local water company.] Academicians flocked to the Singletary Center for the second testing session, which included examinations in Latin Literature, Reading Comprehension, Roman History and Ancient Geography. Other opportunities for competition this afternoon were the English Oratory competition and the first round of Competitive Certamen, both held in the White Hall classroom building.

A full afternoon gave way to a full evening, as creative arts participants had an opportunity once again to compete in Dramatic Interpretation, and many delegates returned for the grueling Academic Decathlon examination, which has a $500 cash prize in store for the delegate achieving the highest score on the exam.

Swimming Olympika were held off-campus allowing a few delegates a chance to cool off. This event also provided one of the more ironic moments of the convention as water had to be delivered to the site - not to swim in, but rather to drink - because a water pump failure prompted the county to issue a drinking water advisory recommending boiling all drinking water.

After such a busy day, a bit of well-deserved downtime capped off the evening. Delegates could attend the American Bandstand dance, held outside on Haggin Field, or opt for viewing one of the more classic movies of all time, "The Brave Little Toaster."

Convention Ear, Wednesday, July 31, 2002 (requires Adobe Acrobat)