It’s that time of year again. The snow is melting, the birds are chirping, the trees are budding. But there is one tell-tale sign of the approaching springtime that Walter Johnson students would be blissfully clueless without.

What is that sign? The passing of SGA and Leadership’s annual fundraising extravaganza, Pennies for Patients.

It’s true, Pennies for Patients is a commendable cause. And it’s true, the money that is collected goes to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. And it’s true, sick children benefit from our efforts. And it’s true, Whitman must be crushed. Wait, what?

Yes, this year marks the fifth consecutive Pennies for Patients win. I say “win” because that is the undeniable ultimate goal of the event.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for Pennies for Patients. The money that we raise benefits an excellent cause. The problem is, when the overarching goal of a fundraiser is to destroy another school’s dreams, things become a little ridiculous. There’s a point when healthy competition becomes flat out hostile.

And that hostility is not only witnessed between the two schools; it spans across the board to the lunchtime atmosphere here at WJ, which often seems less than friendly during Pennies for Patients’ reign.

We’ve all experienced it. You’re eating your lunch, minding your own business, when you are suddenly accosted by two overbearing students holding a jug and demanding cash. You say that you don’t have any, that you’ve already been asked by three or four other leadership kids that day, and that you might have more tomorrow. They will not be deterred. They stand hulking over your lunch group, demanding money from everybody and not leaving until their orders are met.

Anywhere else, this custom reminiscent of the neighborhood bully asking for milk money might be unnerving. At WJ, it has just become annoying.

Pennies for Patients has come and passed, and with it another successful winter of over-aggressive competitiveness and borderline extortion.