This week I have a bit of a different role here at camp since we have our own official photographer Dave Ralph in for Space Camp. Therefore, I’ve been able to participate a lot more in daily activities with the campers and the staff which has so far been wonderful and very strange. Late last night I got to experience (and not just through a camera lens) the Manhunt with a twist night game adapted for Space Camp as Mars Attacks.
The campers arrived to snack already knowing that something exciting was going to happen as they arrived in their sneakers and bandanas. When they were all comfortably seated and blissfully unaware, members of the staff popped up and declared Martian war against planet earth. At this point all the campers ran out of the building with their teams as the ferious war-seaking Martians pursued them with water guns. However, this is a two sided game, it is not just the Martians who are pursuing but they are also the pursued.
Many times throughout the night the twang of an old-time country song (which was the same music used in the movie ‘Mars Attack’ where the idea of the game came from) came on over the loud speaker and at this point, the Martians had to freeze and basically surrender themselves to any team who could find them and drag them to ‘Area 51.’ Unsurprisingly, staff members like Amanda Merriell who are on the smaller side found themselves taken and dragged off many a time throughout the game. As a Martian you could give yourself up easily and walk with your captors but in the words of Sarah Herman “What’s the fun with that?”
The team that came in first managed to drag 15 people throughout the night to Area 51, which sounds like a Delanco Camp record to me. The campers then all went to bed slightly soaked from getting squirted with water guns all night and the staff went to bed covered in sand and pine needles from being dragged throughout the grounds. I think it was a success for everyone.
Ralph Camp is my favorite.