Annual Game Day!

[24T42]

OK - it is time for my annual question - car games! The Brass-Nickel Touring Region is having its annual game day this weekend. This year we did something different and we have invited the Tar Wheel A's form MARC to join us. According to the registrations that are coming in, I am going to have A LOT more kids coming with the folks and grand folks this year - ages 7 to 15. My question is - does any one play any ganes (with the cars)that would be particularly great to do with kids? I am counting on you guys. You have never let me down - yet! Thanks is advance.

[1937hd45]

Drive around a circle and have the passenger spear potatos, fastet time with most potatoes wins. Run it in reverse with older kids. Hula hoop toss around highway cones while car backs through course. Keeping the kids out of harms way shoud give the adults something to do as well.

[Guest EMF-Owner]

This game is a little involved but I always enjoyed it as a kid and I am now doing it for my club and the kids look forward to it every year. We use to do the "hold a balloon between to cars with a plunger" game, the "guide a blindfolded driver around a maze" game, the " stop your back wheel on the x" game, the "spike the potato" game etc., but we are not only doig this game I call the "Picture Hunt". I will try to describe it here. Email me for more details<P>(Extremely long and boring details follow)<P>To start, this game only works if it is played in an area that all the participants know. you'll see why.<P>Each car is a team, with the more on the team the better. Each team gets an envelope with a number on it. The number is the TEAM NUMBER. The game leader starts a clock and says "GO" and the teams can open their envelope. inside they find a picture. Their goal is to figure out where the picture was taken and then proceed to that location. When they get to that location, they will find a box with a combination lock on it. The combination is on the back of the picture, so they open the lock and open the box. Inside they will find more envelopes. They find the one with their team number on it, take that envelope and close the box and lock the lock. They now look at the picture in this envelope and figure out where this picture is...and so on and so on till the last picture in the set leads them back to the starting place where the game leader is waiting to get the ending time. All teams end up going to all boxes, just in different orders. Care must be taken when setting up the game so that on team does not have to large an advantage over any other. I have ways I do that. If people get stuck, they get one free help, then each additional help is a time penalty. <P>Pictures can be simple, like a McDonalds Sign or difficult, like a bush with things in the background of the picture that would give an idea tothe location.<P>The club I do this for always participated in an activity on the laborday weekend on the same 25 acres park. I take pitures then and use them for this may event(this weekend in fact). I set up for 10 teams. You can do as many as you want. I have 10 boxes. I made little boxes up and bought locks. I print the pictures on my PC and print them black and white just to make it a little harder.<P>When I was young, my dads club did this using the whole town as the game field and using coffee cans as the boxes. Problem was that people kept seeing these old cars coming up to the same location and scurrying out to a can and back. We ended up having some cans stolen. This is a game ender. That is why I use a box with a lock and I thought if I needed to , I could chain the boxes in place, but I have not needed to up to this point.<P>This game is a little bit of a challenge to set up, but I do it because the kids love it and look forward to it every year. <P>This game has taken as long as 2 hours to complete down to 45 mins. Every year, people are trying to beat the team from the last year. <P>The more teams you have, the more complex the design of the game.<P>It is hard to describe here quickly. If you want more information, just let me know. <P>This will be my 5th year setting this up and my only regret is that I am not able to participate. But I do love watching all these cars run around.

[24T42]

Thanks to all that have replied so far. <P>John, I like your idea alot. I am afraid through that it will not work Game Day as people are coming from 2 states - a distance of 500 miles. Therefore not everyone knows the area. However, this is a great idea that I will use later in the year on a different occasion. Thanks a lot for the idea. Keep them coming.

[JanK]

I'm going to bring up this team game to our Board. I'm certain there's a way we could make it work in our area. The only problem is, we'll have to use "big kids" since we have so few of the other kind....<P>Jan K.<BR>Wis Region