Human Services Club hosts Jenga Tournament

By Bryce Kirk

Staff Writer

A Jenga tournament was held in the Siek Campus Center on Monday, Mar. 23. The afternoon event was hosted by the Human Services Club to raise awareness for the club and bring students together. In Jenga, wooden blocks are stacked to form a sturdy tower. Players then take turns pulling out the blocks one by one and placing them on top until the whole stack crashes down. Whoever pulls the last block before the tower falls down wins the game.

The game was chosen because Human Services professor Marianne Pepe, the club advisor, had an excess of Jenga games, and the club ran with that idea.

The 6 participants played a total of three rounds of Jenga, competing for prizes. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place won gift cards to the Viking’s Cove Bookstore worth $25, $15, and $10, respectively.

Three round tables, each with a fully erected Jenga game, were set up on the lower level of the campus center by the stairs across from the bookstore. The tournament started with Sean Kibbey, Chemical Dependency major and president of the Human Services Club, reading the rules and guidelines to student participants. “Only one hand at a time may be used to remove a block, both hands can be used, but only one hand may be on the tower at a time,” said Kibbey.

Some students heard about the event through the club, but a lot of participants were grabbed from the lower level of the campus center to play while the event was going on.

Brian Filson, Individual Studies major and secretary of the Table Tennis Club, played, but lost against Chester Volkert, who is also an Individual Studies major.

“I thought the Jenga tournament was fun. It went pretty quick because of the lack in amount of people that showed up. I honestly thought that I was going to win, I was trying to set him [Volkert] up and think two moves ahead but it didn’t work. But I tried,” said Filson.

Volkert placed 2nd in the tournament.

“I thought the Jenga tournament went pretty well. I had a lot of fun with it. I didn’t expect to win because it’s been years since I’ve last played Jenga. If there were more activities like this around campus, I would definitely do it again,” said Kayle McNeil, Individual Studies major and 1st place winner, who played against Travis Seeberger, a Digital Media major.

The third winner was Marti Curtis, who played against Davra Sanangelo.

Pepe, the club advisor, said, “We would’ve liked more participants but our goal was to bring awareness to the club, and all in all I think we did that.”

The Human Service Club is an organization of students, primarily from the Human Services Curriculum, committed to promoting human service values on the Hudson Valley campus and in the community. Its past events include a used book sale and the Adopt a Family program. Pepe said the club is also planning an end-of-the-year event.