On the cool afternoon of Friday, April 27, students gathered together after school at the Warrior Bowl to celebrate Warrior Fest, an annual Westwood tradition held in order to help earn money for the Thirst Project. For the weeks before the festival, during sixth block, every classroom held a donation to earn money for the Thirst Project, a fundraiser which uses all of its earnings to build clean-water wells in developing countries.

This year, although admission was free, the food, which included Kona-Ice, Chick-fil-A, and pizza, as well as tickets were available for purchase. Many clubs, as well as groups who were not affiliated with a club and just wanted to participate, set up booths around the field with activities and prizes. The booths collected tickets for anyone to participate and included a French Club baguette toss, a Guitar-Hero activity, face-painting, and a moving robot from Robotics Club.

“It was a little less interesting than last year because they didn’t have a DJ, and last year there was a dunk-tank and they didn’t have one of those this year which made me sad,” Alexis Smith ‘20 said.

Music and entertainment were provided by students interested in performing. In front of the bleachers, a stage and sound system were set up for the multiple solo performers, including Ali Mohsin ‘18 and Nisha Desai ‘18, as well as other group acts such as “Ben and the Beatle Boys.” Aside from musical performances, the SunDancers began the event with a dance, followed by a show from the Chinese Yo-Yo Club and the Breakdance Club.

“I was trying to make myself less nervous by thinking about how I’m a senior,” Breakdance club member Matthew Donald said. “I’m going to be graduating, so I won’t see anyone. At the same time, obviously I couldn’t not be nervous because I was in front of so many people. But I think it went well, and it felt good to be in front of my peers.”

Although the fundraiser did not reach its goal of $10,000, the donations and proceeds were great enough to help further the goal of everyone having access to clean drinking water.

“I first got inspired during my time at the Model United Nations club here, ” Toni Chang ‘18, head of the Thirst Project at Westwood, said. “During that time, we spent a lot of time learning about natural disasters and humanitarian crises. I had a real chance to make a difference in the global community that I learned so much about during my time.”