“You’ve been chartered!” This Charter Day, one of William and Mary’s own student organizations commemorated the event by “chartering” a few of us here on campus.
Several William and Mary students returned to their rooms Friday evening only to notice little notes attached to their doors, reading “You’ve been chartered,” along with a bag of assorted candies. The mysterious distributors are none other than InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, the same group that brings Pancake House to the campus every semester.
“I got the idea from a tradition called ‘Ghosting,’” explains Isabel Hirama, the activities coordinator for InterVarsity. Every Friday night after their large group meeting, IV holds a social event where members get together to hang out and do just about anything from playing board games to ice skating. For last Friday’s social, members of IV assembled and distributed roughly 180 bags throughout the campus. Members who helped out were tasked with coloring and cutting out griffins, sorting bags of candy, and delivering the bags to just about every dorm.
“It was a lot of fun starting this new tradition on campus,” says Sarah Clark, a helper in the event. “Delivering was cool; we were being secretive about it. Sometimes people would open their doors, at which point we’d yell ‘you’ve been chartered!’ and they took it in good fun.” Bag recipients are instructed to deliver candy to at least two other people. The ultimate aim is for the entire William and Mary student body to get chartered.
“Everyone involved in the event really enjoyed it,” says Hirama. “Charter Day is a fairly new holiday, and we hope that Chartering can become a yearly tradition that will get people excited about Charter Day and spread Tribe Pride.”
So if you’ve been chartered, go ahead and Charter that special someone this Valentine’s Day! If you’re waiting to get chartered, go ahead and encourage your friends to participate in this unique, new campus tradition!
Happy Chartering!