We had until 8pm to complete as many of the objectives as possible, along with the bonus objectives. (It was approximately 6:20pm, so we had an hour and 40 minutes.)
The first team to return would get a bonus, the last team to return would get docked.
Be respectful, but have lots of fun!
For the team that returns to the church first and hands their camera in: (+2)
For the team that returns to the church last and hands their camera in: (-2)
To the best business advertisement (voted by Youth Leaders): (+2)
If one of your teammates cannot be seen in any of the videos: (-5)
After the objectives were explained and clarified, the teams were given $5 and a roll of toilet paper, and then sent out into the unsuspecting Kalona area. I was the leader of team #1, and my teammates were Jonathan, Emily, Rochelle, and Logan.
Emily and Rochelle. Emily is displaying
our team number and overall status in life.
our team number and overall status in life.
Jonathan.
Logan.
1. Start with a short intro to your video!
Our team didn't see this step until near the end of our scavenger hunt, so we ended up making our intro video at the end. We introduced ourselves by name and exemplified complete humility and modesty: "Hello. We're team #1. Thanks for coming along with us today, we're about to win."
Side note: I will be listing the objectives in the order that we completed them, not in the order they were given.
Side side note: The photos in this post are screenshots from the videos we took, since videos are bandwidth hogs.
2. Order an ice cream cone at a drive-thru with the person ordering piggybacking (+1)
We quickly drove to JW's grocery and deli, the only location in Kalona that has a drive-thru window that serves ice cream. There are other ice cream joints in town, but only one with a drive thru. There are also other drive-thru locations in town, but they're all banks. Logan hopped on Jonathan's back and we hauled up to the order window. We quickly explained to the confused employee what we were up to, and also explained that we didn't want a normal ice cream cone, thanks to objective #3. The employee was understandably befuddled by our requests, but did exactly as we asked and gave us a plain vanilla ice cream cone with minimal ice cream.
3. Eat an ice cream cone in 2 minutes or less. (+1)
The key to eating ice cream quickly is eating the absolute minimum that still meets the requirements. In our briefing, we were told that there had to be ice cream INSIDE the cone. A normal cone would have ice cream towering 4 inches or so above the cone. We asked for as little ice cream as possible, but it still came with an additional inch of ice cream above the cone. I scraped that off immediately and downed the cone in a blistering 20 seconds.
4. Order (and eat) a cheeseburger without any cheese (+2)
We ran inside the deli at JW's and ordered a cheeseburger with everything BUT the cheese. The deli employees were now completely bewildered, which was reasonable considering three excited young adults were all clamoring for a "single cheeseburger minus the cheese, to go, please." At that point, another team piggybacked up to the drive-thru window which only heightened our pleas for speedy service. Emily, Rochelle and I were ordering the hamburger while Logan and Jonathan were completing objective #5.
This JW's employee is a wonderful lady but Emily's request caught her off guard.
5. Buy a gallon of milk and give it to a stranger. (+3) (-2 if not completed)
Jonathan ran over to the dairy section of JW's and bought the cheapest gallon of milk he could find: Non-Fat. When I discovered what he had purchased, I lamented that we wouldn't hardly be able to GIVE that milk away. Well, perhaps someone with cats might accept it, maybe. While we were grabbing our receipt, a lady pulled into the checkout lane with just a few items in her cart. "Ma'am, our youth group is part of a scavenger hunt and we need to give away a gallon of milk. Would you be interested?" I asked her. "Well," she said politely, "Would it happen to be skim?" I was completely dumbfounded. "Uh, it's non-fat?" I managed to reply. "Then I'd love to take it!" She beamed. Unbelievable. We had lucked upon the sole non-fat-milk-drinking human in all of Southeast Iowa.
Jonathan, Logan, and I ran over to Emily and Rochelle, who were still waiting on the burger. The deli was making several at this point. We watched as a confused deli employee snatched up an ice cream cone and headed for the drive-thru window. He grabbed our cheese-less cheeseburger and almost gave it to the other team through the drive-thru window (since they had ordered one as well, but a good 5 minutes later than us). With a unified bellow, we all clarified whose uncheesy burger he was holding. He shuffled over and handed it to us. Since the objective didn't clarify that one person had to eat the burger, we split it into quarters and the team ate it while I videoed.
6. Get a married couple over 70 to kiss for the camera. (+2) (+1 additional if he "dips" her)
As we hastily retreated from JW's, we met Paul & Katie, a sweet elderly couple from our church. We hastily explained what we were up to, and would you two please kiss while we videotape it? They agreed with a chuckle and gave each other a peck. Since the couple is well into their eighties, I didn't ask Paul to "dip" his wife, lest they injure themselves in the parking lot of JW's.
"Honey, I think I dislocated my hip."
D'awwwwwww
7. T.P. ONE tree in the yard of a youth group person. (+1)
This objective carried a few addendum. You could NOT T.P. a tree at a youth person's home if a tree had already been T.P'd. Also, any additional trees T.P'd at a single home would be -5 points. We blasted over to Youth Leader Anthony & Shaina's home and made quick work of the roll of TP we were given. We checked the door to see if it was unlocked, in order to do objective #8. Unfortunately, the door was firmly locked (with good reason, what with all the questionable youth running around in Kalona doing bizzare scavenger hunts). Fortunately, Anthony & Shaina's neighbor Suetta (another fine lady from our church) arrived home as we were TP'ing and graciously invited us over to do #8 on our list.
Jonathan was unnervingly good at TP'ing,
as if he's had lots and lots of practice...
as if he's had lots and lots of practice...
8. Clean a toilet for someone. (+1) (+1 additional if it's a public toilet/business restroom)
We rushed into Suetta's home and Rochelle vigorously scrubbed her already-clean toilet. We offered the job to Logan, our Youth Pastor's son. He energetically declined, which is precisely what 10-year-old me did as well, so I couldn't fault him.
Rochelle cleans so quickly, her hand just
shows up as a blur when photographed.
"This is my sixth toilet cleaned today!" She exclaimed.
shows up as a blur when photographed.
"This is my sixth toilet cleaned today!" She exclaimed.
9. Read a story to a child 4 years old or younger. (+1)
Suetta has two little foster girls in her home so I jumped on the couch and offered to read a story to the youngest one. Jackie is 3 or so and was not interested in hearing a story. Well, not interested in the storyteller. Perhaps because I was radiating more energy and testosterone than a runaway nuclear plant, or perhaps because she just witnessed me help vandalize a tree at the neighbors'. Either way, she was in no mood for having a wild ogre read her a story. Jackie began to wail and scream. Anna, on the other hand, loves me and was completely fine with letting me read "Clifford gets the Hiccups" to her. Fortunately, she was 4 years old and met our objective perfectly.
10. Sing a Christmas carol to someone from our church. (+1)
Thankfully the youth leaders didn't have us complete this objective at a stranger's home. They would have thought the Sunnyside youth were completely bonkers, which isn't an unfair assessment. Our church members are used to our ways, though, so it didn't surprise Pastor Floyd in the slightest when we showed up at his door on a sultry August evening and sang "Joy to the World".
Pastor Floyd: Pleasantly unsurprised by youth group antics.
All caroling should take place in short-sleeves
when yards possess green grass, I say.
11. Hang upside-down and sing a VeggieTales song. (+1) (minimum two teammates)
Emily and Rochelle flipped upside-down over a hitching post at Pastor Floyd's and belted out "We are the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything."
12. Climb a windmill. BE CAREFUL. (+1)
Pastor Floyd is awesome and we were more than happy to sing a Christmas carol to him, but it just so happened that he also possesses several windmills at his home. We asked his permission to climb a windmill and quickly scaled to the top.
I now understand why Michael Jordan
labeled it, "The Windmill Dunk"
labeled it, "The Windmill Dunk"
13. Advertise/do a 20-40 second commercial for a business in Kalona. (+2) (Each teammate must be seen in the commercial)
Since we were at Pastor Floyd's already, we did a quick advertisement for Helmuth Repair, the shop that Floyd runs across the driveway from his home. We encouraged locals to come shop at Helmuth Repair by enthusiastically shouting its praises for 24 seconds. I was pleased with our end product, but it failed to win the "Best Advertisement" bonus. There was a lot of stiff competition in this event, due to the fact that my youth group is extremely creative.
14. One teammate must do 10 pushups in the middle of any paved road. (+1)
We had Logan drop and do 10 pushups while we cheered and jokingly cried wolf about oncoming traffic. Instead of doing the pushups in Kalona like we initially planned, we did them on the stretch of pavement in front of Helmuth Repair. Locals are familiar with the fact that Helmuth Repair is located on a long stretch of gravel road, but there's 200 feet of asphalt in front of the business itself. The stretch of road was traffic-free and met all of the requirements, so we accomplished the task right there. Efficiency!
15. Buy exactly $0.10 worth of gas. (+1)
This one, strangely, was the hardest one for me. It took THREE TRIES to get $0.10 worth. On the first two tries, I avoided ethanol fuel by selecting the fancy-pants premium. I was rewarded by purchasing $0.11 twice in a row, until I surrendered and purchased precisely 0.030 gallons of ethanol for $0.10.
We roared back to the Sunnyside parking lot, arriving at 7:30pm. Our speed caught the youth leaders by surprise. They thought it would be nigh onto 8pm before they saw any team return. We were first to arrive, with another team coming in just a few minutes after us.
Once all the teams returned, we ate a meal and watched the video footage that the teams recorded. There were all sorts of funny stories and incidents that took place. One team tried to give a gallon of milk to a distrusting police officer who was busy mowing his lawn. Once the officer heard they were from Sunnyside, he finally accepted the gift. Another team was trying to purchase milk and $0.10 at a gas station.
Team member: "I'd like to buy this milk and...
Gas attendant: "Hold on a second. Some crazy idiots out there are trying to buy $0.10 worth of gas! I don't know what they're up to..."
Team member: "Uh..that's us. I'd like to buy this milk and $0.10 worth of gas."
Gas attendant: "Ohh I'm so sorry!"
Team member: "We're currently doing a scavenger hunt. These are items on our list."
Gas attendant: "I see! Well if you have any additional items on your list, don't do them at my store."
Team member: "..."
The team scores were tallied up and the Youth Leaders discussed the bonus points. The teams all did exceedingly well and it was a close competition. Fourth place had 18 points, third and second place had 19 points, and my team finished with 21 points. The second-place team and our team had identical points for the objectives, but we were given +2 for finishing first and they were given -2 for finishing last. Our team was awarded the prize: a crisp $5 for each member, to be used on ice cream.
I'm super proud of my team, who all worked seamlessly well together to swiftly complete the objectives. To be sure, it took a concerted effort to refrain from excessive boasting while writing this post. I'm proud of my entire youth group, who seized upon the objectives with gusto and made a hilarious evening out of it. So everyone's a winner, in my book.
It just so happens that some winners get more ice cream than other winners in this particular exercise.
No comments:
Post a Comment