On July 8, at 4:00 p.m., Summer School Life Day, the boys of Exeter’s Main Street dorm went out for a day of festivities, to kick off a day of t-shirt making fun.

Since the boys had had a strenuous three days of hard studying and rigorous classes, the dorm heads decided to take the boys out for ice-cream or bowling, and the girls for similar activities  before making t-shirts for Field Day since it was due to start that Saturday.

The boys then went to their respective head dean’s classroom, offices, or their dorm’s respective common rooms, to make the t-shirts and enjoy their dairy goodies as well as to relax and reflect on their first few days here at their new home for the next five weeks.

The boys’ attention was focused on Field Day due to the close proximity of its date. They laughed, sang, and joked about their classes, as well as their home states and countries. They talked and designed their shirts, while undertaking the task of making their t-shirt represent their dorm spirit as they will have to represent their dorms for Field Day.

When asked their thoughts on Summer School Life Day, Patrick Reed, aged 16, Austin Mason, 17, and Nicholas Whiteside, 16, said that it was “Really fun and good experience with the dorms,” as well as being “ An active day for every country mile we had to walk.”

Gianni Torti, 15, when asked about what he thought of Summer School Life Day, stated that “I thought it was fun, because I think that the ability to design our own t-shirts was enjoyable.”

Field Day was set for Saturday, July 11, with a barbecue afterwards. The staff encouraged Upper School students as well as the Access children to participate.

Merrill and Dunbar dorms took top Upper School honors for boys and girls  in last Saturday’s Field Day competitions. In Access, Kirtland and Peabody won for the boys and the Dutch, Moulton and Williams houses combined to win first place for girls.

While students enjoyed their Field Day experience — usually the top-ranked fun activity of the summer — the faculty were also pleased with how it turned out in what was a great experience for both parties.

Events included the izzy-dizzy bat relay, the sack race, and the three-legged race. During the dizzy bat, students sprinted to a bat, spun around it with their head, and tried to make it back to their team as quickly as possible while dizzy. In the three-legged race, two students would team up with one another, tie one of their legs together, and attempt to make it to the finish line. Meanwhile in the sack race, a single student would place his or her legs in a large sack, and hop to the finish line.

The teams that arrived first in each race earned 3 points while the teams that arrived in second and third earned 2 and 1 point(s) respectively.

Out of the upper school male dorms, Merrill finished in first place with 23 points, beating Wentworth by a single point. Dunbar finished with the highest amount of points from the upper school female dorms with 31 points, 11 ahead of second place Bancroft, which earned 19 points.

In the Access Exeter competition, Kirtland and Peabody finished in first place for the boys, with 39 points, while the Dutch, Moulton, and Williams houses united to finish in first place of the Access Exeter girls.

Those in the victorious dorms were pleased with their victory.

“I was very excited when we found out that we beat all the other dorms,” said Remy Naud who was part of Merrill.

Joshua Jun, also part of Merrill, echoed Remy’s delight.

“I was pretty pumped up.”

In some schools, field day includes actual sports, such as soccer, basketball, and relays. However, coach Jim Tufts wanted the events in the competition to be ones that everyone could enjoy.

He said that he and John Walker, who co-planned Field Day, choose these events “because they were silly and fun,” while adding that people “not only enjoy doing them, but enjoy watching them.”

The students who participated were also pleased with the selection of events.

“I think that the field day games were fair and good,” said Joshua.

“I kind of liked the concept of these activities,” said Joseph Thomas, who participated in the three-legged race for Wentworth.

Tufts was hoping for the event to help dorms bond together and simply have fun.

“The purpose for field day is for dorms to have fun and work together,” he said.

“Because its such a short summer, we feel that would build for the next four weeks.”

Several students agreed that field day fulfilled those objectives.

“I liked the atmosphere,” said Joseph. He went on to add that the event, “really brings people together, and contributes to the life of summer school.”

Meanwhile, Remy echoed Joseph’s satisfaction with the competition.

“It helped us bond together because we worked together as one team,” Remy said.

Tufts mirrored the participant’s optimism.

“We as a department thought it was a special event,” he said. “This year was a great year.”