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What Pure Fun!
In the midst of
all the "doom, despair, and agony on me" in today's world, 93
participants in Camp Thurman's His Amazing Grace Race proved Texans
hadn't forgotten how to have PURE FUN!
In a morning of
challenging themselves to a one-mile run, 40 ft. high ziplines,
cargo nets, brain teasers, jump ropes, archery, noodle swims, and
funny relays, teams discovered their "I Can" personalities.
 It wasn't easy for many, but they pushed on with smiles. They cheered each other on and
dared their own bodies to finish the race. This first
annual H.A.G.R. competition was one more event sponsored by Pantego
Camp Thurman to encourage people to have fun, learning to work
together.
 
The race was designed as a "fun"d raiser for summer
camp scholarships and
was organized by our Community Outreach
Director, Mary Hibbs.
 "Some
of the participants had ties with the camp as staff members or
camper families, and we are always delighted to be a part of their
fun and see them support the scholarships, but most of the
contestants had never even been to the camp before, so we were
extremely pleased to have our ministry reach out even further."
Yippee (Mary
Hibbs) enlisted Pantego's police department to block off city
streets for a short period, allowing the contestants
 to complete a
one-mile run around the neighborhood, pretty well hitting every corner of this one-mile square city.
 Then it was on to
developing teamwork back on the campsite to complete tasks like
traversing several cargo nets - tied together with another team
mate, jumping ropes for a number of times - based on the total
ages of the team members, and zipping from a 40 ft. high zipline and
attempting to drop the race's mascot - a rubber chicken - into a
hula hoop held below on the field.
The participants also
navigated four laps in the pool sitting on a swim noodle and climbed
a 25 foot high cargo net to a platform, slid down a fireman's pole,
and then through a spiral slide - all the time having to hold the
whole team together with a short rope.
Sitting under
the CCD (Creative Connections by Design) deck, teams solved brain
teasers, giving the erudite a chance to gain some time on the
athletic. Overheard was "Can we mail in these answers later?"
and "My feet work better than my brain!"
Running the last
lap of the race tied together with bandanas so all team members
would cross the finish line together, participants exclaimed, "We
DID it!" or "Give me a high five, we finished!"
One group
which was walking the last lap was heard to say, "I don't care how
tired we are, if that group behind us starts to catch us, we ARE runnin'!"
Awards followed the theme
of PURE FUN with the trophies being
rubber chickens. Other
prizes included gift certificates from The Runner,
but the biggest prize was
the smile on the faces of all who spent the morning re-discovering
that "play" isn't just for children!
Click here to view the snapshots of the day's fun.
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