A campus competition to encourage participation and class community will launch during Spirit Week later this month.

Colonial Challenge, formerly dubbed Olymapthon, will help promote existing events like Colonials Invasion and Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week by giving away prizes such as laptops, Inaugural Ball tickets and charity donations to groups with the most attendees, said the program’s coordinator, Steve Roche.

Participating teams can be formed from already existing groups such as student organizations and Greek-letter fraternities or sororities or informally, such as a floor from Thurston Hall.

Roche, a former Presidential Administrative Fellow who now works in Student and Academic Support Services, said Colonial Challenge is designed to transfer some of those organization affinities to GW at large.

“We are not looking to reinvent the wheel,” Roche said. “We want to tap into already existing groups on campus and use it to enhance the overall community.”

Several events in the fall – Spirit Week, Colonials Invasion, Class Council Election Night coverage and Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week – will count for Colonial Challenge, but the program will expand to include 10 to 15 events during the spring semester.

“We want to highlight and support the events that are unique and special to GW,” Roche said. “Students are already active in the city but there are a lot of opportunities right here on campus they might not know about.”

Roche said he and other members of SASS are considering a day-long “class Olympics” competition in the spring, akin to a high school field day.

Members of GW Cheerleaders will take attendance at Colonial Challenge events, said Roche.

Roche said, “We are looking to grow signature GW events but getting a larger number of students involved means thinking outside the box.”