Latin club prepares for Latin Fair, Convention

JHE

KM

Bearden’s Latin Club is participating in Knoxville’s Latin Fair at Episcopal School of Knoxville on Saturday.

Latin Fair is where the students of local Latin clubs compete in competitions to get themselves ready for convention.

“It’s an all day Latin-fest with little Latin nerds from schools from all over the county com[ing] and play[ing],” Latin Club advisor Mr. Sandy Hughes said. “Hordes of little Latin nerds are going to descend on Episcopal School freaking out.”

For the first time in five or six years, Latin Fair is not being held at Bearden, but that will not change the fact that the Latin Club students will try hard to win ribbons. The club as a whole will try to win the fasces, which is a bundle of rods around an axe that they get to keep until next year’s fair.

This year’s leaders are confident in their ability to do well at fair and hopefully even better at convention.

“We’re way more organized this year,” Latin Club vice president Jake Fountaine said. “We have better leaders this year. Our seniors are stepping up, and we have a good set of freshmen coming in.”

Sophomore Katy Burton and junior Hope Buchanan are in charge of costumes this year and have been working hard to sew together their togas and build a chariot for the competitions.

Costumes are not the main priority Latin club is focusing on in their meetings, though. They are focusing on preparing for Fair and Convention, the state-wide Tennessee Junior Classical League event held every spring.

“For Latin Club, we have a Quizlet page, and we all make sets of flashcards to study for our academic tests and for Certamen,” Fountaine said.

Certamen is basically the Latin version of jeopardy. Other activities that the Latin club will take part in include javelin contests, catapult making contests, costume contests, Latin forensics, and skits.

From Fair to Convention, Latin Club plans on “going, seeing, conquering,” as Buchanan put it.