Last Friday, September 14, the highly anticipated annual Beyond the Wall poster sale took over the first floor of St. John, with more than 10,000 posters for students to choose from. As always, this sale provided an opportunity for them to not only upgrade their rooms, but also to give back to the community. A vast variety of posters featuring TV shows, books, superheroes, singers, art, and much more were available for purchase, which made it, as always, a worthwhile event to check out. Every poster cost between $5 and $11, making the sale affordable for students.
This tradition started more than fifteen years ago, when Mr. James Yanelli, Director of the Students Activities Center, was approached by members of the community about starting some sort of poster sale.. When he first came to campus, Mr. Yanelli said, he “talked to students about the possibility and they were all excited about the prospect of an easy, accessible way to decorate their blank dorm rooms at the start of the year.”
Strategically held the first week of school, this event coincides with the period when students are getting settled into their rooms and deciding how they want to personalize them, making the poster sale the perfect occasion to fill up some of their wall space. Furthermore, the event directly acts as a fundraiser for the school, as 10% of all profits are given to the Students for Students Choate Scholarship Fund. Unlike any other vendor that comes to the Choate campus, Beyond the Wall promotes education and gives students the chance to express themselves.
Although there may be posters with sexual or alcoholic innuendos, the school tries to ensure that nothing derogatory is supported. “We instruct the company not to provide posters that might be racist, sexist, homophobic, or potentially offensive in any way,” said Mr. Yanelli. Unfortunately, each poster is not examined and judged before the sale simply because there is no time gap between the set-up and the start of sale time, but in all the years, there has never been any complaint regarding posters coming off as crude or hurtful.” “I also asked them not to sell tapestries that aren’t labeled fire-proof, for the safety of the kids in dorm buildings is always the priority,” stated Mr. Yanelli.
Students looked for new posters on Friday, September 14, to cover the walls of their dorm rooms.
Throughout the school day and into athletics, students dropped by to take a look around or to pick up a poster that had caught their eye earlier. “I really wanted to revamp my room, especially since all the posters I previously had were of subjects I was no longer interested in,” stated Medha Illindala ’21, who purchased posters both this year and last, all of which are still in her room. “The people there are great, the poster system is well organized, and the enormous variety is amazing — I would definitely go again,” she added.
“The event was really interesting, and it reminded me of looking through a record store,” said Sabrina Carlier ’21. “You could go with a group of friends and help each other pick out different posters. I had a great time.”
