American consumers alone spend as much as twenty billion dollars every year to celebrate Valentine’s day, commemorating their relationship statuses in the form of chocolate candies, flower arrangements, stuffed animals, Hallmark cards, and diamonds. Materialism has earned the holiday a reputation of just another courtship ritual, but this year, the St. Pius X Catholic High School JCL chapter has been able to return to the roots of Valentine’s Day to celebrate one of the greatest love stories ever told: the relationship between JCLers and Latin.
At our February 8th meeting, over three dozen Latin Club members from all grade levels flooded to Ms. Briscoe’s and Mr. Wineski’s room for the lively V-Day bash. Latin Club members enjoyed plates of pizza, cookies, fruit, and other yummies. During the meeting, students played a game of VINCO, which sophomore Santana Williams characterized as “bingo, but like magical and Latin.” In a race against the clock, students were responsible for listening to the words and phrases that Ms. Briscoe said in English and then examining their scorecard to find if what was said was written in Latin. The VINCO game had a Valentine’s day theme and students showed SPX’s undying love for the “dead” language by circling phrases such as “tē amō,” "mea puella" and "bāsiā mē."
Lucky competitors left with as many as three Life Savers from winning the game, but everyone — regardless of whether they were able to call “VINCO!” this Valentine’s day — was successful. The event was a smash hit, and our chapter has drawn a big group of students in particular thanks to events like these. “We’ve had a huge group of students, many of whom study other languages like French and Spanish, join the Latin Club for enjoyable meetings like these,” chapter social media manager Kaitlyn Lentz said. With so many people in attendance, our Valentine’s day meeting also allowed us to put our heads together and get ready for State Convention.
ST. PIUS X
CATHOLIC
Member Vy Nguyen shows off her artistic talents.
Members (L-R) Jennings Hooper, Ella Fific, and Kaitlyn Lentz pose for a photo in the middle of a heart-stopping round of VINCO.
Witt Hollensbe
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