Relighting an old torch: AUC Olympics
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Youssef Abdelaal/CARAVAN STAFF LET THE GAMES BEGIN: The Student Union is reviving an Olympic tradition at AUC. |
The activities committee of the student union (SU) in the American University in Cairo (AUC) is organizing the SU Olympics, to be held on the main and Greek campuses starting April 4 and running approximately two weeks.
Previous Olympics games were held in 2004 and 2005, but the event was abandoned last year because the SU did not have an activities committee.
“We have 16 games offered, some of them entertaining and some sports. We want to make it exciting and fun for the participants,” said Mohamed El Khouly, head of the SU activities committee.
The games include basketball, volleyball, handball, soccer (on artificial grass in the tennis courts) and such entertainment games as Play Station, Nintendo Wii and air hockey.
“It’s the biggest competition on campus. Approximately 16 teams will participate and it will take around two weeks,” said Ahmed Talaat, events executive in the SU.
Each team will have 10 members, with a maximum of two non-AUCians. The non-AUCians must submit a copy of their national ID, information about the university they are attending and their phone number, said El Khouly.
Prizes offered will include money, Play Stations, sunglasses and free tickets to the AUC carnival, said Mohamed Saleh, operations director of the SU.
“We don’t want the prizes to be only money. We want something valuable that could stay with the winners. The winning team will go to the carnival for free,” said Mohamed Yussr, SU president.
The winners of the Olympics will be presented at the carnival, which will take place on May 16.
“[The carnival] is the biggest party of the year,” said Yussr. Held in the social science area, the carnival will feature entertainment, games and a DJ.
“I want to participate in order to see how these activities are exciting and fun for students,” said Mai Abdel Rahman, journalism and mass communication sophomore.
In order to have a strong Olympics, the SU is searching for sponsors that could offer prizes and make it more challenging for the participants.
“We only have Cilantro for now, but we are still working to have more in the next couple of days,” said Yussr.
“We will have a soft opening because the closing will be with the carnival,” said El Khouly.
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