Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful break filled with rest and quality time with family and friends. After kicking off the semester with the excitement and energy of RUMPUS, we’re now settling back into academics here on campus. While we might be a little tired from all the fun, I’m confident we’ll bring the same enthusiasm and drive to our classes as we did to RUMPUS.
A comprehensive summary of RUMPUS can be found in the Spotlight section below, but I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt thanks to everyone who participated in and contributed to this incredible event. I am continually amazed by the level of preparation and flawless execution demonstrated by our faculty, staff, students, and parents.
A special shout-out goes to our heads of house and dorm leaders for their exceptional efforts in organizing and leading their teams—your dedication truly makes RUMPUS the remarkable event that it is.
And, of course, congratulations to this year’s RUMPUS Champions, Cooper House! Your hard work and spirit paid off—well done!
I’m thrilled about all that February has in store for us at Darlington. This month, we have the much-anticipated winter musical, “Newsies.” A big thank you to our fine arts department and the talented students who are working tirelessly to bring this performance to life for our community.
I’m equally excited about the ever-popular Financial Wellness component of our advisory program. Economics teacher Jared Willerson does an outstanding job of breaking down real-world finances and tackling our students’ “rapid-fire” questions with ease and expertise. It’s always an engaging and insightful experience for everyone involved!
Thank you for all your support for Darlington and our students. This is truly a great community!
RUMPUS SPOTLIGHT
The 19th RUMPUS has come and gone. Students and faculty began planning well before Christmas break, and the last three weeks seem to be a blur with everyone preparing and practicing for the weekend on top of academics, athletics, and the winter musical. Isn’t it funny how 30 seconds in the middle of Gauntlet, Fear Factor, or Lip Sync can feel like an eternity, but the 30 hours of RUMPUS now feels like it was over in the blink of an eye?
RUMPUS is a weekend-long competition between day and boarding students and faculty in Darlington's six campus houses, and this year’s event was one to remember. One sentiment overheard from a first-year boarding student after Gauntlet was, “I didn’t believe the hype, but I’m going to get more involved next year!”
Highlights of the weekend included a murder mystery put on by Moser House that was solved at Lip Sync, a Jimmy Fallon-style game during RUMPUS Gameday where a student wearing noise cancelling headphones had to read the lips of another student from their house to try to earn points, a packed house for both the girls’ and boys’ basketball games, Moser and Regester with a Dodgeball win (and zero missed calls by referees), a new format for Trivia with a Cooper victory, a change to Gauntlet where spectators get to share in on the pain with 1,000 step ups, a Fear Factor where blocks of Spam and cream cheese were devoured, a Lip Sync battle where the Neville gentlemen took home the prize, and some of the best house banners we have ever seen (see Regester).
All of this culminated in a surprise finish, predicted by Mrs. T Everhart at Gameday, with Cooper House taking home the RUMPUS banner for the year. With all the big moments, it is easy to forget about the little moments that also make RUMPUS what it is, like seeing Thornwood girls and Neville boys cleaning up the Van Es after Dodgeball, watching Summerbell continue to encourage each other even though the chips didn’t fall their way this year, and seeing the smiles on faces and the big embraces of students in the Van Es after all the work was done and the time to reminisce in their efforts began.
Click here to see photos from RUMPUS in the galleries on our website.
