Reed Intermediate School students faced off for the second year in a row in a week-long Color Games event, October 8 to 12, and a culminating evening event on October 12 filled the school with students wearing blue and green.

Both fifth and sixth grade clusters are divided into a “blue house” or a “green house,” and the week provided a way for the students to test their skills in an array of different ways.

This was the second year the school’s PTA hosted the school-wide challenge.

According to PTA member and event Chair Debbie DeBlasi, donations were collected throughout the week for FAITH Food Pantry, and students donated two “regular SUVs, two huge SUVs, and a pickup truck” worth of food pantry items. The students earned a point for their house for each food item donated, and they were given two points for donating items the “food pantry really needs the most,” she said in an e-mail following the event. Other challenges were also held throughout the week.

The culminating Color Games Grand Finale on October 12 had free games, with an exception of the Cake Walk — which had students play a walking musical chairs to win a chance to choose a baked good — and a whipped cream pie toss. Teachers and school administrators took turns letting students throw whipped cream pies in their face. The funds from those two stations and from selling Color Games merchandise, gear, and T-shirts will go toward purchasing equipment for the school, according to Ms DeBlasi.

Students rotated through stations set up in both the school’s cafetorium and gymnasium to participate in activities and earn points.

At the “Oreo Gobble Station” students were challenged to place an Oreo cookie on their heads and get it into their mouths without using their hands. At the “Unicorn Magic Toss Station” students took turns holding a silver cone on their heads while other students tossed rings onto the cone. At a “Double Ski Trouble Station” groups of students worked together to walk to cones while standing on two large planks of wood.

Md DeBlasi estimates more than 300 students participated in the grade finale. The slogan for the Color Games is, “Fun, Friendship, and Teamwork,” and Ms DeBlasi said she thinks Reed accomplished all three of those things this year.

The Green House was announced as the winner of this year’s Color Games on October 15. As the winning house, the Green House will have its name added to a Color Games Trophy and a plaque for the Green House will be put up on display in its hallway, according to Ms DeBlasi.