This year, Teens Need Teens (TNT) hosted a Survivor-style competition at Indian Hills as one of their annual fundraising events. TNT initially promoted the event during the IHHS holiday assembly with a spoof video and commercial in December. Survivor TNT took place over two days, March 8th and 10th. Senior Dylan Lounsbury was the mastermind behind the event.
Survivor, a show that challenges contestants to survive in the wild and endure a variety of challenges, was created by Charlie Parsons in 2000, averaging over 6 million viewers during the most recent season. Lounsbury said that he loves Survivor because “The game takes people from different walks of life and forces them to work together in order to achieve a common goal, victory. Survivor forces people out of their comfort zones and builds new relationships along the way, which is what I wished to replicate at the school.” Junior Natalie Portnoy, one of the final four contestants, claimed, “I joined Survivor TNT because Survivor is my all-time favorite TV show. I have been watching Survivor since I was nine years old and have so much appreciation of the game and knowledge on how best to play it. I couldn’t wait to see if I could succeed after all these years of watching!”
Each year, TNT is tasked with raising money for a cause that the group cares about, reflecting the idea that “teens need teens.” Survivor TNT was no different. Lounsbury explained the choice to raise money for FOWA, “For Survivor TNT, our players raised $250 for FOWA rescue, an all-volunteer nonprofit organization dedicated to the welfare, sheltering, and placement of homeless animals. It is an incredible cause that has helped to give me my two cats, Zuko and Zola. They both came from FOWA foster homes and my life is better with those two in them.”
The Survivor TNT competition had a wide variety of challenges for its nearly 30 contestants to compete in. The events included wall sits, dancing, planks, and more. Senior Lily Duarte said “My favorite challenge was the one where each team had only a few minutes to choreograph a one-minute dance number to ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’ by Bon Jovi. Sabrina [Adams], Shavonne [Farley], and Natalie [Portnoy] were my teammates, and each of us had such creative ideas that made for a pretty decent dance. It was so fun getting to ‘perform’ in front of everyone, and it was an enjoyable change of pace.” The dance challenge was also Portnoy’s favorite: “We chose to use the moves we learned from folk dancing classes at gym, and we won!”
In the end, Duarte surprised herself and came in first place. “Going into the event, I had absolutely no idea where I was going to place,” Duarte says, “I didn’t know how to play the game, or therefore how to strategize, but I was able to gain more and more confidence as the days progressed. I realized I had to ally with the right people and be in just the right place at the right time. At no point, however, could I have confidently said I thought I was going to win, even when I made it to the final three.”
She relied on social tactics to earn her place, making alliances as she went along: “I never betrayed the allies I made at the start of the game,” Duarte says, “I most notably allied with Hannah [Lewis] and Natalie [Portnoy], which worked out in my favor because I constantly had two people I could turn to and put my full trust in. More selfishly, however, I also knew that as members of the jury, they would both vote for me when I went to the final three, which secured me a better chance at winning.”
Duarte says that her biggest strength was being perceived as unsuspecting, explaining that “Going into it, I had never seen Survivor, I had never participated in any of the previous games Dylan and Sabrina organized, and I’m also not the most athletic person. Lots of people got out because others saw them as a ‘threat,’ or as someone that knew how to strategize. Flying under the radar was definitely what got me to the final four at the very least.” Duarte’s enthusiasm for the event was shared by her competitors and allies, resulting in the whole ‘cast’ bonding.
The event went smoothly despite the complexity of the planning. Lounsbury says, “The event went awesome! […] The members of TNT did a brilliant job at filming/setting up the challenges and everything went smoothly!” Though TNT faced last-minute staffing issues and illnesses, the group was able to pull together to make it happen. Lounsbury’s experience planning several Survivor competitions for his friends and classmates in the past undoubtedly helped the event succeed.Lounsbury hopes for the Survivor TNT fundraiser to continue after he graduates. In the meantime, Lounsbury is excited for the release of a video covering the Survivor TNT highlights. “I do not know the exact date, but [the video will] definitely be in the coming weeks. We have two days of footage and want to make the best product possible,” he says.
