Family Support Center Olympics 2015

Text and photos by Elizabeth Barnes

Last Thursday, November 5, we honored a Family Support Center vacation tradition: las Olimpiadas!

Students head through Llanos del Pinal to the playing field we rented for the day. Fortunately, the weather was beautiful all morning.

The kids divided into teams (Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue), captained by General Projects Coordinator Abizael Del Valle and FSC employees. Then everyone climbed into costales for our first event: the sack relay race!

Gustavo, a teacher at the FSC and captain of Team Blue, helps Eric Eduardo into a costal.

Each competitor had to carry a baton (water bottle) out to their team's turning point (backpack), go around it, and hop back to tag the next person.

Evelyn rounds Team Green's backpack.

Team Green won the sack race! Next event: another relay, a variation on pantano that required each competitor to duck and jump alternatively under and over a line of ropes, run behind the rope holders back to their team, and tag the next runner.

Carmelina does Team Green proud!

Once again, by a narrow margin, Team Green took the gold!

Next event: soccer! Last year the kids had a tournament leading up to a final game at las Olimpiadas. This year we had 5-minute matches followed by penalty kicks to break any ties. 

Teams Blue and Red face off for Round 1.

After 5 minutes without scoring, the game went into a tense series of penalty kicks!

Teams Red and Green won the first rounds and went to the championship game...

...and Team Red broke Green's streak by taking the victory!

Our final event was balloon stomping. Not all competitors were interested...

...but those who were had a blast.

After lots of running, popping, and shrieking, the competition came down to Carmencita and Roxana—and Roxana snagged the victory for Team Yellow when Carmencita's balloon came off her ankle.

Thanks to their victories in the costal race and pantano, Team Green took first place this year! Felicidades a todos. If you'd like to see more photos of the Olympics (featuring some impressive air time during pantano jumps), check out our Facebook photo album.