Counting blessings before Christmas is a tale as old as time, and the students of Chanute High School kept the tradition alive after a lively day of improv, games and pie.
Kicking off the Thanksgiving event, the CHS Theater League’s Nonsense Ninjas performed improv. The improvisers acted out prompts given to them by their adviser, which led to positive feedback from the audience. O’Neal Smith, one of the improvisers, reported, “I was actually expecting little to no audience reaction, but I was pretty surprised by See CHS, Page 3.
how much we had.”
Additionally, around 65 students from over a dozen extracurricular groups volunteered to assist with the first Comet Carnival during the improv show, giving students with intellectual disabilities an opportunity to enjoy games and prizes, face paint, snacks and more.
CHS students were treated to a school-wide feast, with Thanksgiving favorites such as turkey and pie, and after an open mic karaoke session, proceeded to the annual Advisory Olympics.
The Advisory Olympics include balancing a stack of lug nuts vertically, throwing pool noodles into the center of hoops and keeping a balloon in the air for as long as possible. The better a class performed these tasks, the more points they gained, and the class with the most points got to claim the Advisory Olympics trophy. This year the trophy was claimed by Zachary Callaghan’s advisory class. After the initial games, students danced to hits such as “Cupid Shuffle” before their advisory representatives competed in Rock Paper Scissors and Guess the Tune.
The dust didn’t settle after the Advisory Olympics, because after the winners were announced, students gathered in the auditorium to watch the pie-eating contest. The contestants were not allowed to use their hands, so they had to bury their faces in the pies to eat them. The first to eat an entire pie was Durk Hanna, securing the win for the junior team. Finishing almost immediately after was O’Neal Smith, who had been surprised when his classmates escalated from cheering in their seats to crowding the stage.
Smith recalled, “What was really fun was when some of my friends came up and tried to hype me up, which actually kinda helped, and it was funny seeing them being sent back to their seats. I’m pretty sure Durk and I took a look at each other when that happened. But speaking of Durk, I’m not mad I lost to him; I came in the same place the last time I did this contest, which was in like sophomore year.”
Students were dismissed after the games and will return to school on Monday.
