“THE RACE” VISITS CSM

Tuesday, January 15 - “The Race”, a popular British reality show made a stop at CSM recently. “The Race” is a contest between four couples to try and be the first ones to complete different tasks. Some of the different tasks included having an overnight stay at a sheep farm in Australia and taking part in all the daily tasks including sheep shearing. Another task they faced, in India was to witness the illumination of The Sun Temple at Konark, Orissa, either at dawn, noon or sunset, as well as convince a local official to put them up for the night. The teams had no money, so had to either convince local people to help them with food, transportation, etc., or they had to find a way to earn money.

The United States was one of the last stops on the trip, and before the teams arrived here, they had visited Turkey, India, Singapore, Australia, and South America. One of their tasks in the Washington D.C. area was to compete on a sports team in soccer, basketball or rugby. One of the teams chose to complete that task at The College of Southern Maryland!

Amanda Winslet and Niall Boyle were the two contestants to visit CSM. Amanda, 22, is the cousin of actress Kate Winslet of “Titanic” fame. Amanda is also a drama student, and hopes to follow in the footsteps of her famous cousin one day. Niall, 26, is a teacher, and heads the science department at his school in Epsom.

While at CSM, Amanda and Niall met with the coaches and players of the men’s basketball team. While they did not practice with the team, they did receive instruction in shooting, dribbling, and rebounding. They both proved to be quick learners, as well as very congenial to work with.

Amanda and Niall did not leave CSM empty handed. They both received autographed basketballs from the men’s basketball team, as well as a CSM shirt, and a Hawks’s softball jersey that had been worn in the National NJCAA softball tournament. Several CSM staff signed Amanda and Niall’s T-shirt where they had been collecting signatures from all the different people they had met on their journey around the world.

The next stage of the journey for Amanda and Niall was to travel to New York City, and from there was the climatic race home to Greenwich, England for the Grand Prize. Amanda and Niall finished second, missing by only four minutes the Grand Prize of £50,000.

While their visit to CSM came in October, the “CSM episode” was just recently aired in late December on ITV in Great Britain.

Everyone found Amanda and Niall to be friendly, congenial people. They seemed to enjoy their visit at CSM as much as we enjoyed hosting them. We hope they will wear their Hawk shirts proudly and we wish them both the best in their future endeavors.

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