Culver City Observer -

On Saturday, October 30th, The Willows Community School Latin Club will host a virtual Latin convention called SCRAM (Southern California Regional Amici Madness) for Latin clubs and students of the Classics from across southern California right here in Culver City. In the spirit of friendly inclusion, we have invited clubs all the way up the west coast: Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Students may take academic tests, complete art projects, partake in spoken word contests, attempt athletic feats of strength, participate in STEM and Minecraft building competitions, and play Open Certamen, a game similar to Latin Jeopardy where teams of students answer questions about Latin grammar, vocabulary, Roman history and culture, mythology, and more. We have invited two authors to speak: Caroline Lawrence of “The Roman Mysteries” and Madeline Miller of “The Song of Achilles” and “Circe.” Our theme for the convention is post tenebras, lux, or “after the darkness comes the light,” which was chosen by Brian Lazarus, our state officer for the California Junior Classical League, which is part of the second largest youth organization in the United States. We have sent out sidewalk chalk to clubs so that they may participate in our chalk art contest in boxes assembled lovingly by our students and hopefully to entice them to join us on the 30th.