Cheers echoed across South Quad Saturday morning as teams from Keough, Fisher, McGlinn and Farley Halls raced in Keough Hall's 28th annual chariot race.
This year marked the first year women’s residence halls competed in the event. Farley’s team won the women’s division race, and Keough’s 2A section won the chariot race.
Justin Aguiar and Jimmy McHugh, Keough’s president and vice president, decided they wanted to improve the race this year.
The proceeds from the chariot race will go to the local organization Reins for Life. McHugh took a philanthropy class where he learned that the organization was looking for fundraising assistance.
“I think raising money for a good cause was a fantastic thing that we integrated into the chariot race,” McHugh said. “We're really glad that Reins of Life has been so good at working with us and that we were able to raise some good money for some equipment that they really need.”
Keough implemented a dorm-wide competition this week to challenge each section to raise the most money. Teams participating in the chariot race also paid a registration fee to enter the competition.
However, fundraising efforts also extended outside the residents of Keough Hall and the other halls who participated, for the hall asked for donations from parents and alumni.
“We have a fantastic parent group, and we have a fantastic alumni network,” McHugh said. “We reached out to both of them, and both were very generous at not only donating but sharing the message of the chariot race.”
Reins of Life serves people with physical and cognitive disabilities using equine-assisted services. The organization’s executive director Dorota Janik said the proceeds from Keough’s fundraising will go towards new equipment the organization needs.
“We are looking to install a mechanical lift, where people who have mobility issues [who] have difficulties getting on a horse … They cannot get on a horse or to the carriage, so the equipment will grab them, lift them up and hoist them into the carriage or onto the horse’s back,” Janik said.
Since the organization does not currently have the equipment, volunteers lift those who have mobility issues onto the horses.
Janik explained the equines are an “auxiliary” mode of intervention used to complement traditional therapies. Between the South Bend and Michigan City locations, there are 36 equines including horses, ponies and donkeys.
The organization serves 450 people a month, Janik said, and they need 400 volunteers to help them “carry out their mission.” Reins of Life partners with several local organizations and universities.
On top of fundraising improvements, Keough also introduced a chariot-building barbeque event this year.
“All of Keough came out last Sunday, and we all built chariots together,” Aguiar said.
McHugh said the event did something rare for a larger dorm like Keough — it brought the entire hall together.
“I think morale is gonna be very high in the dorm. Bigger dorms like Keough and O’Neill, we're all section based. [So] it’s very hard to get to know everyone in the dorm because there’s 270 of us,” he said.
Because Keough is section-based, one section of the hall competes in the race. This year, section 2A competed and won the chariot race.
Keough held its first chariot race 28 years ago, despite having a different structure then. McHugh and Aguiar said they wanted to see more involvement from other dorms as they hoped to achieve the same level of involvement the event had before the pandemic.
Within Keough, involvement in the chariot race is voluntary, and the team that competes is selected based on the interest of the residents.
“Everyone in this section is allowed to express interest in racing, but I think everyone also wants to win,” McHugh said. “So it's very telling of the character of the people in Keough that everyone is able to agree on the best team to race.”
McHugh said he thought the structure of the chariot made a difference in Keough’s performance.
“Last year, we had a bit of a bulkier chariot,” he said. “So this year when we were designing what we wanted we were thinking maybe less will be more, and it seems to have been a success.”
The simpler chariot was a new design for Keough that was brainstormed and built together during Sunday’s event. Building the chariot is something that requires a couple hours of dedication throughout the week.
“It really takes a lot of imagination to come up with a new design,” McHugh said. “A lot of times it is successful, and it's a really great part of the freedom to build whatever you want.”
