Press Release:  Riebeek College Girls’ High School annual Stay Awake
Captions: (3 emails to allow for each photograph to be emailed as 1 attachment per email with ease)
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Lauren Labersensie, Corbin Booysen, Zene Meintjies
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Back: Lunathuxolo Tys, Unakho Ndiaye, Owam Mgolodela, Viwe Mali, Jade Naude.
Front: Janaan Wicomb, Mia Melville, Haniyyah Nathie
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Janaan Wicomb, Mia Melville, Haniyyah Nathie, Unakho Ndiaye
 
The Grade 4s to 7s of Riebeek College was humming with excitement in preparation for the annual Stay Awake in February. The theme was Go for the Gold #LET THE GAMES BEGIN! This was in line with the Olympics scheduled to take place this year. The learners are sponsored in this annual event to stay awake all night.  The events of the night are educational ones and include team work, art, physical education, life orientation and dance. 
Like true sports women of great mettle, the girls spent many hours practicing for the inter-grade dances. However, these practise sessions were met with another difficulty often faced by those in sport; the weather. There were days where the heat was blatant and unforgiving and others where the ground was a muddy mess, which made it impossible to practise. Not to mention load shedding! But true champions are spurred by adversity, not discouraged by it.
On the night, the foyer was decorated with podiums, the Olympic rings, depictions of different sports, gold banners and ribbons and chalk boards with encouraging messages created by the Grade 7s. The hall was set up as the arena and the games were awaiting their champions.
The prospective champions arrived and with help from their pit crew, their parents, they were able to set up their team camps. The ceremonial pop of the first balloon marked the first hour and the beginning of the games. The first activity had the girls creating posters of different athletes and sports.
The next activity was a fan favourite for the girls, staff and parents. So, you think you can dance? Yes, Riebeek girls can dance, and well too. The group dances were spectacular. The judging was so difficult the judges had to see some groups again.
The girls were than challenged to create a model of a real-life athlete. They had to dress one Grade 7 from each group in the sports gear of the athlete they had chosen and write something for them to say to introduce themselves. Some of the memorable ones included Unakho Ndaiye’s portrayal of Christiano Ronaldo and Viwe Mali’s Siya Kolisi.
The time for the Midnight Feast finally came and the athletes ate with abandon because they needed to carbo-load for the next activity. Unfortunately, the wonderful feasting inevitably introduced the prospective champions to their biggest opponent, sleep. Luckily, the next portion called on them to get up and get the blood pumping with an awesome dance cardio workout.
The Olympics are an international affair, and so after the work out the ladies had to find their torches and take a 60-minute trip around the world. The Treasure Hunt had them searching for the flags of some of the countries participating in this year’s Olympics.
After this came the Inter Grade Dance Competition, where the flame of competition burned bright and hot. The girls went head to head and held nothing back. They left their last drop of sweat on the dance floor.
The hula hoop passing game was heavily contested. Each group vying to be the quickest in getting the hoop from one end of the circle to the other, without breaking the chain. This intense competition was encouraged by Mr Maschaka’s commentary, which even drove the teachers to participate by going head to head with the prefects!
Finally, as light began to find us, the journey to find the rising sun had to begin. It was a chilly trek to the top hockey field, some already spent, but we trudged on because winners never quit. The reward was a magnificent glow, although some missed it because they fell asleep on the stands. Then it was back to the hall for the final pop and a fond goodbye to a wonderful night. As per tradition, the Grade 7s stayed behind for a pumped up clean up session with music by Miss Hattingh.