It’s your turn

Jest Club members begin the game

Kate Neuhaus

 

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. 

 

All play and no work makes . . . the Marian Jest Club.

 

The Jest Club made its first appearance as nothing more than a figment of the imaginations of juniors Kelly Keefe and Frannie Maier.  The two girls, self-proclaimed board-game addicts, got the idea for the jest club at the beginning of this year. 

 

It wasn't long before the girls had brought the idea to a few of their friends and their teacher Ms. Feregrino.  “Kelly had a good idea and I said, ‘okay.’  I thought it sounded fun and I like games,” said Feregrino.

The Jest Club proposal was a hit and before they knew it Feregrino had volunteered to be the moderator and the club was open for sign-ups to anyone with a passion for pawns. 

 

So far the Jest Club has met twice and appears to be off to a roaring start.  At a Jest Club gathering, a girl can show up to compete in a match of anything from chess to chutes and ladders.      

 

The girls who have attended jest club functions seem to especially enjoy the non-competitive atmosphere the club provides for girls to play games and interact with kids from all grades. 

 

“It’s not supposed to be competitive.  We just have fun.  It’s working out really well,” Keefe says of the newly formed club.

 

Although the Jest Club does not function with competition in mind, the club will be hosting a board gaming tournament over lunches during the last week in November in honor of National Board Game week. 

 

Finally, the thing all the board game critics out there have been wondering.

 

What do the members of the jest club say in response to allegations that it is not board games being played, but rather bored games – that the clubs focus is an activity that is turned to as a last resort and often ends in intense boredom? 

 

Keefe retorts, “I always thought they were called bored games because they are what people do when they want to stop being bored.”  The members of the jest club agree.