The first Friday of camp started out like a hot Mississippi day. The sky was as blue as the ocean. But it was not an ordinary day—it was the day of the Amazing Race! By the day’s end, we would all have found a girl’s soapy foot, run to the far reaches of the campsite and had water balloons explode in our faces.

Let me explain.

Following lunch, all the campers met outside the mess hall. We were broken into teams and assigned a referee for a game that would involve a wide variety of challenges. Mr. Gabriel Lischak gave the rules and regulations of where we were allowed to go and what we were to do. Each of the eight teams came up with different animal names for themselves: dolphins, pythons, coyotes, koalas, cougars, gorillas, bobcats, and last, but certainly not least, the grizzlies.

At exactly two o’clock, three megaphone blasts sounded and the teams and referees were off! The events started with a paper plate, a hole in the plate, and a string. We had to punch a hole in a paper plate and swiftly but carefully make our way to a tree 60 feet away. The plate could not touch the white string that was in the middle of it. This started the Amazing Race, which turned out to be competitive, sometimes frustrating, and always exciting!

Later challenges included adding numbers on license plates, memorizing biblical scriptures, drawing the Job 41 Leviathan sea beast, eating watermelon, and carrying water balloons with forks. The funniest task was figuring out how many pairs of clean animals Moses had on the ark. In the rush of the game, no one realized that Moses was not in the ark with clean animals—Noah was! We figured it out after a few minutes.

During the race, the campers learned many things about themselves.

• One veteran camper said he learned how to push and direct his team members with words instead of physical actions.

• Another seasoned camper said that he learned how to be a better leader. With the right attitude, he said, he was able to learn everyone’s limits and how to have the most fun.

• A first-time camper said that she learned to push herself and to work with a team instead of alone, even though it was hard to get along at times during certain problems.

• A second-year camper said learning patience was key: “You should work together as a team and have patience because if you don’t, things will not get done properly.”

Almost every camper asked repeated three purposes for camp: teamwork, communication and leadership. Most said if you don’t have communication, your team fails.

Everyone that participated in AYC’s Amazing Race had a wonderful time and is ready to see what happens next year!