COCA-I Best of Show Camp Program

COCA-I Best Of Show – Camp Program: The Camp No Worries Monkey Hunt!

Description of activity: Possibly the largest pitfall of a full-camp scavenger hunt is its timing and coordination. Scavenger hunt stations with planned activities must start and finish at the same time for the most efficient game flow, which requires full-camp cooperation and coordination, including travel time to each station. Planning and coordinating an event such as this can be extremely complicated, especially when accommodating for campers in a wide range of ages, campers with mobility issues or other participation-limiting disabilities, and overall campground geography. The Camp No Worries Monkey Hunt was designed to take all of the usual limiting factors of a scavenger hunt into consideration and minimize their effect on the program. The scavenger hunt was modified to incorporate ten individual, independently operating activities within the overall game’s time limit. The game is designed with a number of activity stations greater than the number of teams so that there will always be a place for a team to participate, and teams were encouraged to find the open activity, rather than wait in line at an occupied activity. The nine teams participating in the hunt were selected in advance, in order to encourage groups with similar abilities to participate in the activity at their own comfort level and still have a rewarding experience. Because of the similar camper groupings, teams tended to progress through activities at a predictable rate. Team progress could be assessed and addressed on the fly so that game play could be normalized effectively. The normalization of the game flow was completed by the staff in charge of running the ten activity programs, the “Monkeys”. After some brief interaction with the team members, the Monkey could decide to increase or decrease the threshold required to win a token. Similarly, other staff members were positioned around the campground for normalization during activity switching. “Heroes” could help teams acquire tokens from Monkeys and “Bandits” could slow a team down or steal tokens requiring the team to repeat an activity or barter tokens with another team. The overall object of the scavenger hunt remained unchanged: “Be the first team to collect all ten monkey tokens and return to the start before the time limit.” But, because of the advanced planning and game design, it was as though there were nine separate games being enjoyed at the same time, and each at the appropriate ability level for each of the camper groups. Cost: The total cost of the scavenger hunt was about $150.00, which covered ten activity stations, nine camper/counselor teams of about 15 individuals, two heroes, two bandits and two program directors. The activity ran for two hours on Wednesday afternoon. Costs were minimized by creating homemade tokens, costumes, accessories, and prizes. Our tokens were made from rounds cut from tree branches and painted with a symbol for each activity, likewise for the grand prizes. Monkey hats, cowboy hats and bandanas were ordered from Oriental Trading as costumes. Hero capes were recycled from a previous year activity. The games played were “minute to win it” style challenges which use minimal supplies which can be obtained inexpensively (i.e. tic-tac’s, ping pong balls, Kleenex, etc.). Other activities were variations on regular camp activities (i.e. swimming/diving games, boating obstacle course, archery challenges, etc.).

Benefits to camper: The overall benefit of the game design was clear immediately. Upon receiving their envelope with instructions, each team enthusiastically sought out their first activity. Campers were grouped with friends within their usual age groups, but were also competing against other friends or siblings within and outside of their age group. The camper’s comfort with the team groupings fostered feelings of attainability and encouraged participation, for the dual purpose of having fun with friends, winning tokens, and maybe even beating a brother or sister’s team! Additionally, teams were encouraged to communicate and interact with other teams while playing. Because of the normalization tactics that were used, some teams ended up with more than one of the same token. Tokens could be traded among teams, game tips could be provided, or the last known location of the bandits or heroes could be discussed. Siblings on different teams could swap a quick story about a challenge that they had just finished-- and won! Each team returning at the end of the game displayed the tokens that they had earned with a sense of pride and accomplishment. They were clearly proud of their team, had done their best and had a great time doing it. A young team returning with five tokens had smiles on their faces as big as (or maybe even larger than) another team returning with ten tokens and in contention for the grand prize. The youngest campers were able to enjoy the individual challenges and cheer on their own team while the older campers were able to grasp the larger concept of the competition to compete for the grand prize. Despite the varied focus on the game, each group found an aspect of the game to enjoy. Staff role: The monkey hunt utilized each staff person in a specific role so that there was guaranteed staff interaction with nearly every camper and counselor. Despite being stationary in their monkey activities, each team came to them to participate, allowing each staff person to have equal interaction and conversation with each team. Likewise, each team was able to interact with that staff member in their role. As game leaders, the staff were also asked to “read the game” at intervals and adapt their activities to the abilities of their participants. The “winning” threshold of an activity may be set lower for one team, while the challenge becomes more difficult for a leading team. In between activities, Heroes would look for teams that were lagging behind and bandits would seek out and delay teams who were taking an early lead. Counselors were assigned to teams within their usual age groups of campers so that the campers had leaders that they knew and trusted. The counselors (as they always are at our camp) were encouraged to be enthusiastic leaders and participate in activities alongside the campers (but, of course, not take over). One of our counselor training slogans at camp is “if you’re having fun, they’re having fun!”

Program support materials: Detailed descriptions for each activity area, team handouts, clues, monkey, bandit, and hero instructions follow this page. These documents are customized for the Camp No Worries campers, structure, staff and campgrounds. Directions, locations, clues, activities and instructions should be reviewed and revised for each camp’s staff resources, camper limitations, available activities, and geographical attributes. Please contact Jon Bernacki at [email protected] for digital copies.  Team instructions and clues  Hero instructions  Bandit instructions  Monkey instructions  Activity descriptions and requirements Object: Collect each of the 10 monkey tokens by using the given clues to find the monkeys hidden around camp and complete their challenges. Return to the dirt lot first with all of your tokens to win the golden monkey award!

Team Instructions:  Work with your teammates to follow the clues below, find the monkeys and win their challenges!  Start with the first clue to find your first monkey. After the first challenge, you can go in any order.  Decide as a team who is best suited for each challenge. Make sure everyone gets a turn. Some challenges will require full team participation.  If you’ve found a monkey station and it is occupied by another team, move on to another one and come back later! There are always empty stations!  If you’ve found a monkey sleeping at a station, you will need to find a hero to wake him up!  Avoid bandits! They are also trying to collect tokens! They may steal your tokens or put monkeys to sleep so that you can’t do their challenge. If you encounter a bandit, you may be able to barter with them since he may have already stolen other tokens that you need, but watch out! They’re tricky!  Heroes are here to help! They can chase away bandits, make them give back stolen tokens, wake up sleeping monkeys or put them in agreeable moods. Heroes may be carrying extra tokens as well, but you’ll have to prove that you are noble monkey hunters to get it!  If you end up with 2 or more of the same tokens, you can barter with bandits, heroes and other teams for tokens that you don’t have yet.  Meet back in the dirt lot at 4:15 even if you haven’t collected all 10 tokens. Heroes:  Your goal is to patrol your designated area (1/2 of camp) for bandits and keep them from stealing tokens from the teams or putting monkeys to sleep.  Only heroes can wake sleeping monkeys. If a group needs you to wake a monkey, go with them to help!  READ THE GAME: Talk with the team. Find out how they’re doing. If a team is winning by a lot, don’t help them much. Or move on and let a bandit do his job. If a team is losing, help the team out by answering a clue or with an extra token you’ve taken from a bandit. It’s ok if it’s a duplicate, they can barter with other teams.  Once the group is gone, go your separate ways to hinder some other group. Heroes and bandits are just teammates putting on a show for the game.  You will be riding around with nurses in golf carts. If the nurse is called to duty, you may ride along or go on foot elsewhere. Use your radio to check in where you are needed. Stay active!

Bandits:  Your job is to steal/collect tokens, but not get caught by the heroes.  READ THE GAME! Try not to ruin anyone’s day. Talk with the team. If the team is down, let them off easy. If they’re winning, set them back by taking a token or putting a monkey to sleep.  Only put monkeys to sleep that are finished with their game, not starting one. Let the next group find a sleeping monkey. Be reasonable about putting monkeys to sleep. Only do it 2-3 times in total. You will stall the game if too many monkeys are asleep at the same time since only a hero can wake them.  you may steal 1 token from a team that has several already. If a team does to have any tokens and you’ve caught them at a station, you can put the monkey to sleep so they have to come back later.  Teams are encouraged to negotiate with you. Negotiate creatively. Make them dance, sing, trade tokens with them or just run away in the middle of the transaction with their token.  If you’re caught by a hero while you’re hassling a group or monkey, you have to do what the hero says. (give back a token, dance, sing, etc).  Once the team is gone, go your separate ways to hinder some other group. Heroes and bandits are just teammates putting on a show for the game. Monkeys:  Your job is to remain at your station and run your game when a team finds you.  Keep each group at your station for at least 5 minutes. You can put on any attitude you like to make things more interesting: Happy monkey, ornery monkey, mischievous monkey, forgetful monkey, slooooowww monkey. You can demand that the team sings a song, do a dance, or whatever before they can play your game.  Play the game according to the instructions. Use your best judgment whether or not you need to make the game easier or more difficult for each team you encounter. Feel free to get creative.  If a team does not win the game, they can try up to 3 times with different players. If after 3 tries they still can’t win, they may come back and try again later.  READ THE GAME. If a team is winning, make the game more difficult (cut the time to 30 seconds), or require them to win multiple times.  If a team is losing the overall game badly (or can’t seem to win the challenge after 2 or 3 tries), let the rules slide a bit once they’ve attempted the game and give them the token.  If your game loses pieces or is used to a point that I can no longer be played, improvise. Make the team do some other challenge for a token. If you see a bandit, hero or banana, tell them and a substitute game may be provided.  Finish your game before interacting with bandits. If the puts you to sleep, only a hero can wake you. Teams will seek out heroes to wake you up. If no team comes with a hero, wake up on your own and continue playing after sleeping for 10 minutes.