Community Corner

Slices of Life: Save The Boxer Run!

Belmont Patch columnist Lisa Gibalerio believes when in the course of human events yada yada yada

Written by Belmont Patch columnist Lisa Gibalerio

There a comes a time in every individual’s life when one is called forth to right a wrong, to fight the good fight, to stand up for what one believes in, to picket, to march, to rally, to storm the Bastille, to trample out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored, to levitate the Pentagon.

That day has come for me.

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Today, I declare myself committed to the righteous cause of – dare I say it? yes, I will not be silenced! – Saving The Boxer Run.

Will you join me? Will you take a stand for justice?

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I can hear some of you saying: “Lisa, I’m so with you. I’ll join the crusade. I’ll do whatever’s necessary. I’ll fight with you to the bitter end. I’ll storm Town Hall. I’ll sit-in with you at the School Administration Building. Sign me up! But first, please tell me: what is The Boxer Run?”

Let me describe this event unparalleled in modern times.

For the past 15 years or so, the students who participate in the Performing Arts programs at Belmont High School have taken part in a tradition – a tradition that is now, sadly, threatened.  What is this endangered tradition?

At the end of the last theater performance, the boys throw off their costumes, their shirts, their pants, and their socks. Thus stripped down to nothing but their boxer shorts and shoes, these courageous youngsters take a joyous victory lap of sorts.  Taunting (but not breaching) decency, they burst out the back entrance of the band room, make a celebratory jaunt around the high school, and when the chill of the air overwhelms the heat of adrenalin, make their way back into the school. They are each of them “laughing all the way.”

Parents, grandparents, siblings, neighbors, all of whom having just enjoyed the fruits of the theater participants’ labor, line up in throngs along the access road of the high school and cheer and toot horns to offer encouragement to the enthusiastic runners. Audience members too are out in force.

The runners take their lap. And, three minutes later, The Boxer Run is over. Over, that is, until the last night of the next theater performance, when the spontaneous ritual is enacted once more.

The event is a great and wondrous leveler. From the upperclassmen who star in the play to the freshmen who are cast in minor roles, from the kids who paint the set to the lads who light it, from the chorus members to the costume crew, all the boys are invited to participate. However, and this is important, there’s absolutely no pressure to take the lap. Run or don’t run, it’s up to each lad.

You might be wondering: “Gee, Lisa, it sounds fun. Why has it been cancelled?  Has the administration received complaints?”

Not a hint of displeasure has ever been publicly communicated from either parents, audience members, or even from elsewhere in the school administration. Everyone I’ve talked with has viewed The Boxer Run as a harmless lark, a way to “run off” steam after what is often eight weeks of intense labor leading up to a theater production.

But now, The Boxer Run is threatened. Grim authority had issued a horrible decree: “This shall not be! The Boxer Run must never happen again!”

Can you imagine the response of the students who have participated in the run? They are devastated. But they are something else as well. (And not just cold.)

No, like any self-respecting teenager who has been told that something is off limits, that something might offend someone, that it might be better to try another path, these students have found a new commitment – to doing exactly what they’ve been told not to do!

Yes, in a “Boxer Rebellion” for our times, these undaunted theater students have taken up the baton to protest this arbitrary imposition of limits, this suppression of their free expression of … well, underwear.

It is unclear what form their protestation will take. One shudders to consider what an angry performing arts student could do in the face of such injustice.

But using the very tools of “The Man” back against those who would restrict their freedom, they have decided to apply the 21st century skills they have learned in the classroom to create a technological bulwark against this tyranny.

They have created a Facebook page! It’s called Bring Back the Boxer Run http://www.facebook.com/boxerrun .

Will you join me?  Will you help these thespians save The Boxer Run?


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