The Rec Center gym was crowded with costumes and competition as Engineers Without Borders Guatamala (EWB) hosted its third annual Dodgeball tournament this past Friday evening to raise money for their intersession trip to Guatamala this winter.
"I went to play in the tournament because dodgeball is amazing, and it was for a great cause," freshman Quinn Dunkak said. "I would definitely come to a similar event in the future."
The tournament was a fundraiser for the group's trip to Guatemala, where they will build a solar powered water pump that would give a Guatemalan community access to safe drinking water.
18 teams, consisting of five to eight people, joined the tournament that evening. Each team had to dress up in a costume of their choice. Some found this to be a fun aspect of the event.
"Seeing everyone dressed up in their respective costumes was my favorite part. That, and seeing how intense everyone was getting throughout the night," freshman Bill Kim, a member of EWB, said.
The tournament had a single elimination format, where teams were placed into brackets. After a series of three-minute matches, a team of freshmen, donning penguin costumes, came out victorious. The team consisted of Erik Lim, Sam Wiessler, Jensen Reiter, Tanner Brown, Edward Corty, Ben Hwang, Daniel Ovelar, and Liam Devine.
The tournament turned out to be a success, with many Hopkins students expressing their inner desire to play competitive dodgeball. Students had to pay five dollars to play and EWB asked for a dollar donation from spectators. At the end of the night, the group made a little over $500.
"This dodgeball tournament was run by two freshman members, which is really exciting. Any student can contribute a lot to the organization, and this successful event was run by some of our newest members," sophomore Clea Baumhofer, a team leader for EWB, wrote in an e-mail to The News-Letter.
The main mission of EWB is to improve the lives of people living in small, underdeveloped communities. These communities often times lack access to crucial resources, and struggle to survive without them.
"Engineers Without Borders is all about students taking the initiative to improve the infrastructure in developing countries. It's a great way to gain experience in actually working as an engineer, or as any kind of professional," Baumhofer wrote.
Women and children have to spend countless hours each day collecting water, rather than going to school or attempting to tackle other chores.
The organization is working on installing a pumping system to pump the water up to a central location in the village. They then want to move on to water treatment, and potentially install water in individual homes.
EWB's trip in January is a trip to get all the prep work done for their eventual project. It will be primarily for building all the concrete structures for their project, including the catchment basin and pump tank at the site of the stream. There will also be two storage tanks constructed and a tap stand in the village.
The organization will also be surveying the steepest areas where they will eventually have to lay piping. There is another trip planned for June, where the piping and solar panels will be installed.
The club has raised approximately $25,000 for their mission so far, but to complete the trip in June they need approximately $7,000 more, which they will be working to earn throughout next semester.
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