CANDY LAND: RESULTS and Bonner Leaders use game to teach students about poverty

Mrs. Nut, Princess Frostine and King Kandy bring back childhood memories of “Candy Land.” On Oct. 14, the chapel was home to a game of life-sized “Candy Land,” which is something you don’t see everyday.

Spread across the floor was a homemade “Candy Land” board game, Candy Cane Forest and all. There was candy spread throughout the board and players were continually enthusiastic.

“The event was super fun and I love ‘Candy Land’ so much and I’ve always wanted to be part of the game,” said freshman Susanna McNeil.

There were some squares that contained black dots, each with a fact or lesson about poverty. Each black dot the players landed on, they lost a turn.

“Basically, the idea of it is to present some educational information about poverty in interactive and entertaining ways,” said senior Christine Barker, one of the organizers of the event and a Bonner Leader.

The event was put on by the Bonner Leaders and RESULTS.

The Bonner Leaders are students who make a two-year commitment to a community-service and leadership-development program where they complete a minimum of 300 hours of service through work-study or Americorps. Their goal is to fight poverty in the Spokane region by promoting social justice, developing youth, caring for elders and more, according to the Whitworth Web site.

RESULTS is a grassroots organization that “creates long-term solutions to poverty by supporting programs that address its root causes—lack of access to medical care, education or opportunity to move up the economic ladder. We do this by empowering ordinary people to become extraordinary voices for the end of poverty in their communities, the media, and the halls of government,” according to the RESULTS Web site.

Barker was also hopeful that the event would generate some excitement about a video-conference call with Paul Farmer, featured in “Mountains Beyond Mountains,” which happened on Oct. 17, this past Saturday.

Farmer wrote a book that many upperclassmen read as freshmen. He is a physician and anthropologist who focuses on providing health care to the world’s poorest and sickest communities. Farmer helped found the nonprofit organization called Partners in Health, according to the NPR Web site.

The “Candy Land” event tied in with the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, also on Oct. 17.

Barker noticed that “Whitworth students really do want to learn.” Participants were interested in what the event was all about.

“Plus, its life-size ‘Candy Land.’ What could be better?” Barker said.

Contact Katie Palmer at katie.palmer@whitworthian.com.

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