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For the past three years now, the Office of Annual Giving has set up pinwheels in Red Square in the last few weeks of April. This year, this happened last Friday. We had 3,763 pinwheels set up all over the square, spinning merrily in the wind.
Each pinwheel represented someone who had made a gift to McDaniel in the past fiscal year, whether it was a friend, parent, or alumni of the school. Seniors, about to become alumni, who had made a gift were also represented, and some of them had fun looking for the pinwheel with their name on it. As tuition only covers 80% of what it takes to run the school, contributors to McDaniel are extremely vital, and this is a lovely way to honour them. Additionally, we served free Rita’s Water Ice to students in the middle of the day.
I work for the Telephone Outreach Program, which is responsible for keeping alumni up to date and talking with them about the Fund for McDaniel, and for doing miscellaneous tasks like these that Annual Giving has for us to do. I was one of the people who was up by 7 a.m. to set up all of those pinwheels. It took twelve of us about two hours, but it was well worth it!
Red Square is generally pretty enough on the average day, but the pinwheel day is one of my favourite days of the year because of how gorgeous all the pinwheels look with the sun reflecting off their faces. This year was windy, as well, so all day long, they were spin-spin-spinning.
This past Thursday we celebrated Earth Day on campus. The Green Life group put on different events. Unfortunately, the tree planting got cancelled because of the rain, and I was unable to go to the movie they held, but I was able to pick up some of the free fruit they had from Baugher’s.
They had apples and oranges as well as BOXED WATER! I was so excited about this because I’ve never seen it before! Apparently there are lots of benefits to using boxes rather than plastic. They also planted two trees if you take a picture of the box and use #ReTree. It was awesome because I got to help save the planet on my way to class!
Hope you all had a great Earth Day too!
 The boxed water!
This past Thursday was the 400th anniversary of the second part of Don Quixote, so the library along with Dr. Deveny planned to have a read-a-thon of the book! It was so fun! If you have not read Don Quixote, I can honestly say you have not lived. It is one of the best books ever written!
It’s a book about a man who decides to be a knight one day, so he go around on delusional adventures while also giving the readers critical life advice and making you laugh. I was one of the first people to volunteer for the read-a-thin because I love this book so much!
After a day of reading, we had a reception with cake for all our hard work. It was one of the best times of my life, and I cannot wait to re-read Don Quixote in Spanish next time!
 Don Quixote Cake
 We won second place! On Thursday evening, I had the pleasure of helping bring home the second place trophy of this year’s annual Carroll Literacy Council Spelling Bee.
I’ve participated in the Spelling Bee for four years now, either as an alternate or an on-stage member, and this year, I got to spell on stage again as team captain. My teammates were excellent; all of us are English majors and one of my teammates is also a Latin tutor, which was advantageous. Getting to spell in teams is a lot of fun and it definitely takes the pressure off — before a teammate goes up to the microphone to spell a word, he or she gets to convene with his or her teammates to determine its spelling.
The word that totally stumped us was “quoddy,” a type of Native American open sloop-rigged sailboat. Spelling it “q-u-a-t-t-y” just didn’t cut it. However, since other teams picked easier words or spelled words incorrectly and lost points, we were able to win second place. It was a close match. The first place team won by only one point, and our team actually tied with the third place team. The only reason why got second place was because we had selected a final word with a higher point value than that team had.
Last year, our team won first place, so I hoped that we could repeat that. However, spelling bees are incredibly unpredictable, so I was just as happy with second. Winning second place was a great way to end four years as a member of Team We Spell McDaniel. I have a lot of fond (and frustrating) memories of spelling with some cool people and always celebrating with them at Hoffman’s Ice Cream : )
 Win or lose, we always treat ourselves to Hoffman’s after the spelling bee — it’s tradition!
One of my favorite things to attend every year is the Dance Company’s Annual Showcase. The Dance Company is a campus club that invites anyone with any level of dance experience to come, learn to dance, and participate in the showcase. As someone that finds watching and learning dances relaxing, challenging, and wonderful, the showcase is a pleasure to watch.
This year’s showcase included songs such as “Take Me to Church” by Hozier, “Silhouettes” by Of Monsters and Men, and “Uptown Funk” by Bruno Mars (the finale). The dances are all choreographed by members of the group and are proceeded by videos highlighting members, discussing the dances, and talking about why the club is important to them.
It’s difficult for me to choose a favorite dance. They were all very well done, and the group’s members were passionate about each one. Choosing a favorite would be like choosing a favorite limb. Could it be done, sure, but there doesn’t seem to be a reason to do it when I can love them all equally.
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