Harry Potter-inspired game to raise money in Swampscott for Project Bread

SWAMPSCOTT – The signs are decorated, the uniforms are prepared and high school students are readying their broomsticks to play a human, or “muggle” version of Harry Potter’s favorite sport of quidditch for the benefit of Project Bread.”We’re already excited about Harry Potter because we like it and, if you add in a social justice issue, it really gets you to think and be passionate about that,” said Swampscott High School senior Emily Walls. “It’s about doing good things, but also about having fun while doing it.”The Harry Potter books portray quidditch as the most popular sport in the wizarding world. Walls described it as a sport combining elements of dodgeball, capture the flag and basketball – all while participants ride on a flying broomstick.Walls, along with juniors Taylorlyn Stephan and Jackie Thomsen, are the founding trio of PotterWatch, the Swampscott High School’s chapter of the Harry Potter Alliance, an international nonprofit dedicated to using the popular fantasy series to promote social change.”I spoke to them briefly this morning about the broomsticks,” said High School Assistant Principal Frank Kowalski. “There will be no flying.”But other aspects of the Muggle version of the game – according to the official rules formulated by the nonprofit International Quidditch Association which, yes, does exist – remain similar.The teams retain the same roster of seven players: three chasers, two beaters, a keeper and a seeker. The chasers pass a “quaffle” – or volleyball – through any of the three hoops on the field, which are guarded by the teams’ respective keepers.Meanwhile, beaters try and protect their teammates from the bludger, a ball that travels indiscriminantly through the field.But at this point, the muggle version of the game loses some of its magic.While enchanted bludgers knock wizards off their broomsticks in the Harry Potter books, muggles who are hit by the bludger must drop their broomstick and the ball and report back to their goal post before rejoining the action.And in Muggle Quidditch it is not the seeker, the team member who chases the elusive golden snitch – the capture of which pretty much wins the game, who is the most glamorous member of the team.Rather it is the snitch who tries to elude the seeker by roaming beyond the boundaries of the field, sometimes on a bicycle, in a bright yellow spandex uniform.”We probably won’t let them get too far,” Walls said, explaining that the snitch has a soccer-sock that must be captured for a team to win. “We have to have short games and don’t want anybody to get lost.”But the students are taking more than the fun of quidditch from the Harry Potter books.Walls explained that the Harry Potter Alliance was started as a social change organization.The students are raising money for Project Bread by charging entry fees of $7 per team and $2 per individual who want to participate in the after-school tournament this Friday at the high school.They will also sell concessions.The event will take place on Friday at approximately 2:30 p.m. at Jackson Field. For more information or to volunteer or participate, contact [email protected] the dozen students painting posters on Tuesday to advertise the event, only Walls said that she had tried muggle quidditch before, and not in a game. Many of the students also participate in the high school’s community-service club Interact.”I think this is so cool. I’m so impressed how clever it is,” said art teacher and Interact adviser Anita Balliro, while overseeing the poster-making. “It’s completely student initiated to put the service element in.”Student Cate Sheehan said she was just excited to use her Potter fandom for a good cause.”It’s hard to find something to rally kids together,” Sheehan said. “When you find a medium for everyone alike, it’s awesome.”