Winning the game of clubs

The first club olympics in over a decade sparks a spectacle of friendly competition

to race in a triathlon which was a combination of all the games.

NICK MARTINEZ Features Editor @NickEsai

uncover about your family history, and as an example, she details the life of her grandmother.

There may not have been any gold medals or torches held high, but there were a few broken eggs and twisted ankles at the Club Olympics.

Pierce College ASO hosted the event with competitors from the Ideas Club, International Students Club, Engineering Club, PTK Club and many more different student organizations on April 10, at Rocky Young Park.

The event included a series of games, such as an egg relay race, a balloon toss and a three-legged race.

ASO chair Nicole Alfaro said it has been decades since the clubs joined together for an event like this.

“The last time we did a club Olympics was actually 20 years ago. I was like, we need to bring it back,” Alfaro said.

I.D.E.A.S club member

Karina Villegas said that the $200 cash prize was what motivated her and her teammates to compete in the olympics.

“What motivated me was the price because we're trying to earn money so we could have T-shirts for our club,” Villegas said.

Villegas was optimistic that they would at least place in the top three.

“I feel like it may be a bit competitive because we are going against the running club and they seem very fit,” Villegas said. “I expect to at least get second or third.”

The three winning teams were

The top three clubs where PTK, Engineer Club and AGS Club. The first place winner was the Engineer Club.

President and founder of Engineer Club, Joey Glasser said he enjoyed the event and was happy to participate in it.

“I liked how inclusive it was. You know, everyone was working together. There was no hard feelings. If someone lost everyone was a good sport about it, and that's always a good thing,” Glasser said.

Glasser said he and his club will be using their prize for future projects.

“It's definitely going to go towards building some projects, we are the engineering club so we do build things. We're just going to have to come up with something very intricate,” Glasser said.

Alfaro said that this event was meant to bring unity to all the clubs at Pierce.

“This event is important because we like to bring clubs together,” Alfaro said. “We just wanted to like kind of say thank you but in a fun way and like make them compete against each other to win up to $200 today for their club.”

Alfaro wants all the clubs to feel welcomed and that there is help when they need it.

“We want to get to know them better and make sure clubs understand that they shouldn't be afraid to approach us were here for you,” Alfaro said.

Alfaro is hopes that the club olympics because an annual event to better help all the clubs.

“I'm wanting to make this a yearly thing,” Alfaro said. “I do want to make sure whoever is chair continues this and as well as,the therapeutic puppies that were bringing back again this semester.”

Digging into your lineage is like opening doors, each revealing someone who could have been a track star, a military hero or a victim of a historic tragedy.

Umoja helped students unlock those doors through a genealogy event held April 12 in a Library classroom.

Outreach librarian Lisa Valdez hosted the event that showed students how to create their family tree on ancestry.com, and showcased everything she discovered while putting together her own for the past seven years.

“I looked to see how my relatives have died, and it said things like shot, stabbed, strangulation,” Valdez said. “Then I must think about the times I which that they were living, it could have been for any reason. It could have been from racism, but at least it gives you an idea of how these people died. it really makes you think about how we live now and that it is our responsibility to not take for granted what they went through, and what they suffered through.”

Because of the various events happening on campus simultaneously, the turnout was small, but those who did come emphasized its importance.

“There was a lot going on today,” Chaka Hunter, an attendee said. “There was another event my other professor was offering extra credit for, and I was turning in resumes at the job fair, but I didn’t want to miss this, because it is just as important.”

Valdez explains there is a lot to

“I came from a long line of very, very strong women,” Valdez said. “My great grandmother was a nurse and put seven of her nine kids through college. Two of them were track stars, most of them were in the military. Only one female went to the military. She was navy and lived up north where she was a black panther. She also got two Ph.D.’s, one in theology, and one is psychology, and now she's a thug for Jesus.”

Valdez recalls a personal experience she had when going through her family’s documentations to emphasize how you can discover a lot when you look at your family’s past.

“My mother said when she found her birth certificate, she didn’t know her father wasn’t her father,” Valdez said. “When I found my fathers birth certificate, his father wasn’t his father. So, I told my brother, ‘Did you know that neither one of our granddaddy's is really our granddaddy?’ He was like, ‘My whole life is a lie,’ I'm like, ‘These people did not raise you, get it together.’”

Another event attendee Rayquan Blizzard, has ancestors from a foreign country, meaning he would have to pay more on ancestry.com to get their information.

“I’m half Japanese and half black,” Blizzard said. “I have a lot of family in Japan, and I have to get their documents from overseas.”