A surprise field day on Friday, May 21, gave CA students an opportunity to switch gears and enjoy each other’s company after a long year of adjusting to changing pandemic norms and protocols. A community-building meeting was held for remote students, and in-person students were invited to sleep in. Following chapel, Zahaan Khalid ’21 and Eric Liu ’21, student head and vice head of school, announced the occasion. Instead of going to class, students headed to stations set up around campus to pick up their team shirts and learn about their first tasks.
Falling by coincidence within the first few days after mask guidelines relaxed outdoors for Massachusetts schools, Red and Blue Day couldn’t have come at a better time. We could hear the laughter and see the smiles all around campus!
Red and Blue Day is an updated version of a beloved, longtime CA tradition that initially died out in the 1970s. Then as now, students were divided into two teams — half red, half blue — to engage in friendly competition; now as then, students wear the same color throughout their CA careers. The event was revived in 2018, largely thanks to the care and planning of Kaity Goodwin ’18, who was the student head of school at the time. The resumption of Red and Blue Da in person this spring, with some features unique to this moment, was most welcome.
This year, Concord Academy hired Wit ’N Grit to create the course across the middle and upper fields and across the quad. The activities combined logic games and puzzles testing memory, problem-solving, math, and spatial awareness with physical obstacles that required agility, strength, balance, and coordination. All of it required teamwork. Students split into two groups, with half completing the course first while the other half engaged in appreciation activities: making beaded chameleons, writing sticky notes with messages of gratitude, and decorating ceramic tiles to share bright spots of the year and what CA means to them.
Just as the beautiful day began to turn hot, the festivities concluded with slushies and an old-fashioned dunk tank — with a mystery student in the chameleon costume aiming to dunk the deans!
After points were tallied, the blue team was declared the victor. But competition wasn’t the focus of the day. In a year unlike any other, coming together was reason enough for the occasion.
We hope you enjoy these photos of Red and Blue Day!
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