![Reaching out. Christopher Lesh, student at Central Catholic High School, serves ice cream during the event on March 2, 2025, at the Portland waterfront. Central Catholic was just one of the schools that sent student volunteers out to cook, prepare, dish, and serve food. Interact club’s co-president Rachel Gerber, junior, plated the food during the event. “I like how direct the contact is,” Gerber said. “You’re there [and] you’re just doing something good. It’s simple, it’s easy, you can feel good about it.”](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/interact-1-edited-1200x744.jpg)
![At the bottom of the third inning, the Lions are still scoreless. Rowe stands at home plate, preparing to bat, while Vandenbrink stands off to the side as the next batter up. Despite having the bases loaded, the team was unable to score any runs. “It’s just the beginning of the season. We’re just going to be playing out best by June, [and] that’s where champions are,” Rowe said.](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/IMG_3077-1200x900.jpg)
On Thursday, Feb. 27, the four remaining teams of the Amazing Race competed to win the finale. Unlike previous years, four teams were allowed to compete in the finale rather than three. This was due to an incident during a challenge in the second to last leg of the race, where one team kicked the other team’s bouncy ball during a challenge.
The teams in the finale were Team Light Green (Ethan Caba and Baird Gilroy), Team Maroon (Lauren Kamali and Allison Hawk), Team Sky Blue (Brennan Jarrell and Evan Spencer), and Team Navy Blue (Nyamma Nelson and Megan Strobbe).
Team Sky Blue won the Amazing Race by stacking their last cup and Sesame Street character before the other teams. Team Light Green came in second, and Team Maroon finished in third. The finale took around an hour to complete.
While every team’s charity received a cash prize, the winning team received $1,000 to support their charity.
“[The charity we are representing] is Northwest Children’s Outreach and you help foster kids that need clothes, hygiene, and stuff like that. You make these bags and the organization takes them out for you. We will be donating the money so that they can buy more clothes and things like that,” Spencer said.
To win the finale, the teams had to complete five challenges where they could not leave the space around their table. The first was to memorize the theme song from “Sesame Street.” The second was to complete a colored puzzle. The third was to throw cookies into their partner’s mouth and the fourth was stacking blocks in a pattern where each side had the number one. The final challenge was stacking a nine-layered pyramid of cups using grabbers.
“We kind of just winged it. When we got to the cups, one of us would pull them apart when one was holding one,” Spencer said.
In order to apply for the Amazing Race, contestants had to be in a partnership of two seniors..
“We have been friends since we were little so I guess we had that team chemistry,” Jarrell said.
To put on the Amazing Race, planning in advance is necessary, for example, setting up the trials or creating the signs and clues. Associated Student Body (ASB) member Cadence Cox, junior, helped put on all the challenges.
“Every class period we do at least one Amazing Race challenge, and we have been planning since January. We are usually here about an hour before teams show up, but the challenges can take a long time,” Cox said.
The theme for this year was kids’ TV shows, which included “KC Undercover,” “Little Einsteins,” “Spongebob Squarepants,” and more.
“When we were discussing homecoming themes, someone suggested that we do kids shows for the porches, and we realized that that would work really well for the Amazing Race,” Cox said. The Amazing Race will continue next year. To watch previous legs of the race, visit ASB’s YouTube account.
