Seniors host second annual MS Hopscotch Fundraiser Tournament (10 photos)

Students participate in Hopscotch tournament on the school's basketball courts. Photo by Natasha Garcia.

After a week of midterms, students were encouraged to attend the second annual Hopscotch for a Cure on the school’s sports courts from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The event took place for the first time during the 2010-2011 school year, and proceeds went to the Multiple Sclerosis Society.  Senior David Nassau chose this cause because it has significance to him. When he was in elementary school, Nassau received the news that his father was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, a chronic and disabling disease that affects the Central Nervous System.

“I don’t know exactly when I found out or even where I was, I’m not sure if my parents even told me exactly when he was diagnosed. It was not like I initially recognized that he had a disease because he still looks normal but I did not realize at the time what it would do to him,” Nassau said.

Along with Nassau, senior Gary Wexler raised a total of $6000, four times the amount of the predicted $1500. Instead of organizing the event by themselves, Nassau and Wexler gathered a group of about 20 volunteers to help out.

“I volunteered because I know David Nassau from Save What’s Left and I have volunteered with him in the past. Volunteering at anything makes me feel empowered because doing something for others for a change is really nice,” Kirk said.

The event began with a speed round where students were instructed to hopscotch up and back the drawn numbers four times as fast as they could. After, an endurance round was called to action where the students hopped up and back twelve times. A challenge round came next, where the participants competed in ten bracketed rounds that correlated with the amount of bean bags thrown.

Extreme Hopscotch, a different course than the traditional one, was added and expanded over the court and included nine consecutive hopscotch grids. Teams ranged from three to five participants who had to do different physical obstacles including jumping rope, touching the ground, crisscrossing their legs and hula hooping while hopping.

“During the Extreme, people were tripping on the courts because of the different obstacles we had and people were jumping in circles,” Nassau said.

The grand prize of an HD Television went to the first place winner, senior Daniel Oliva. In second place came senior and winner of the speed round Ari Kravatsky, followed by third place winner Thomas Pettas.

“This year we had the help of a lot of our close friends and a lot of people that really cared and that was nice. We are helping out a great cause, and we did it all ourselves. We are proud of what we have done,” Wexler said.

These seniors decided to pass on their legacy to underclassmen volunteers that have spent their time helping out with this cause. Wexler and Nassau hope to continue raising awareness for Multiple Sclerosis as they head off to college.