One hundred volunteers, a few adult helpers, two Kruzichs, and endless pizzas. These were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect math competition, but there was an extra ingredient: 500 elementary schoolers! Thus, Liberty’s most recent Math is Cool competition was born.

This competition in late March was the final one hosted by Liberty’s Math Club for the year, and the massive event went off with only minor hitches.

“It went a lot more smoothly than the earlier ones in the year because as the year goes on, we figure more stuff out,” Math Club member Quinn Widdows said.

The daylong competition required volunteers to proctor the tests, score them, and award prizes afterward, and Liberty’s students were there to provide them. Math Club members, good Samaritans, and students from Angie Kruzich’s geometry and calculus classes always make themselves available for the competitions.

Kruzich has been an integral part of Math is Cool (MIC) for years. She’s the regional coordinator for the Western Washington area and has been in charge of competition organization for years, but she can’t handle everything.

“Kruzich always tells the volunteers that these competitions wouldn’t happen without them, which is very true. It’s definitely a big commitment taking the time out of your Saturday to watch over kids competing, grade tests for hours, sell concessions, and more,” Math Club member Jenny Le said. “Nevertheless, students will always sign up and show up to help.”

Of course, there are also perks for the volunteers. There’s free pizza, the event counts for community service hours, and Kruzich’s students get extra credit. Volunteers also get great work experience from MIC competitions.

“It’s kind of interesting to have that experience of trying to run such a big event,” Widdows said. “That definitely helps with leadership skills and organization and just getting stuff done by deadlines.”

Other volunteers also mentioned valuable growth from participating in these events.

“[The kids] will be very disruptive to this competition and very rude to each other too, so I think I learned a lot of patience during MIC as well,” senior Jeff Lin said.

All the events may be concluded for this year, but Kruzich is always working towards the future. She’ll need a lot of volunteers as MIC continues to grow, and the benefits and experience will keep attracting motivated students.

“These events are really big, and a lot of students come to these schools. And, you know, it was a challenge, but it was really fun, and I really enjoyed that,” Lin said.