Dodging for Charity: DECA Dodgeball

Victoria Purcell

April brings some lovely things with it; cute baby animals, pretty spring flowers and of course, DECA Dodgeball. This year marks it as the 12th annual charity fundraiser. Melissa Lam, president of NAHS DECA, spoke about this year’s charity that the proceeds will be donated to. No Kid Hungry is “an organization that provides children and parents with nutritional programs and healthy food initiatives,” according to Melissa. No Kid Hungry also has participants from our school, another reason Melissa said the charity was picked.

The actual tournament ran like a well oiled machine. The officers put together a bracket which hung in the gym so that everyone could see who was up. They had popular music blasting from the speakers and refs stood on either side of the gym. This year, due to low participation, the tournament was a double elimination. The event began with the National Anthem and without further ado, dodgeball begins. The rules are basic, if you are hit you are out, if its caught you are out. Once you are out though, you are gone for good. Each game lasts two minutes and the team with the most players after time runs out wins. This can make this get really heated towards the end, especially when each team has close to the same number of players! The real showdown started at the end between Lights Outs and the Crazy Eight’s.  Although Lights Out made a valiant effort, the winners were The Crazy Eight’s, who have won in previous years. However, the real winner was No Kid Hungry, even with a small crowd, around $500 was raised for the charity.