On March 8, Riordan competed against Mercy SF High School in the sixth annual Mercy vs. Riordan Benefit Rally in an attempt to keep the trophy at Riordan for another year, and to raise money for the San Francisco Foster Youth Fund, a local charity focused on improving the lives of foster children.

This year,the competition was scored based on which school had the highest percentage of students attending, most money raised per capita, a rally soccer game, stafflimbo, “Name that Tune,” QuizBowl, “Letter Diving,” and an obstacle course.

Riordan won the competitions for attendance, rally soccer, and Quiz Bowl.

The Riordan community was able to double the amount of money raised from last year. This was partly due to a fundraising event, “Water Balloon an O’Brien,” which was when students or faculty donated money to launch water balloons at a distance with their hands or a slingshot at Student Captain Patrick O’Brien ’19 and his father, Michael O’Brien, the Dean of Academics and Science instructor. Various students and faculty joined in.

Mercy won the competitions for staff limbo, “Name that Tune,”and the obstacle course. “Letter Diving” had to be scrapped, as there were disagreements over who finished first.

There were many disagreements among the organizers about the points, and the winner of the event was ultimately decided by a coin flip, which Mercy won.

Many Riordan students were frustrated about how it was decided.

Dillion Ruggiero ’19 said, “I felt it was unfair of Mercy’s suggestion through the whole thing, which was cutting out the last two games, the “Letter Diving” game and yoga game, which we agreed on as the tie breaker. It was frustrating to see.”

Joey Klobas ’07, Student Activities Coordinator, felt that the coin flip was the best and fairest way to decide the winner.

He said, “I feel the benefit rally was decided in the fairest way we could have done it. At the end of the day, Patrick represented the the school the best that he could in saying that it was not fair we threw two games out, because if we won one of these two games, we would’ve tied. Patrick was able to convince them to be able to do a coin flip, and they won the coin flip.”

Overall, the rally was a success. Riordan raised close to $3,500 for the charity, including tickets, the water balloon toss, and donations.

Although Riordan did not win the trophy, participants from both schools enjoyed the event.

Ruggerio said, “The benefit rally is such a unique experience at Riordan and I had a lot of fun.”

Jolly Curameng, a Mercy senior, said, “I had a splendid time, because Mercy won! It was one of the best rallies because you could definitely feel really good energy from both Mercy and Riordan!”