Vote

The jello fight is a once-per summer event and always one of the highlights. This is our fourth year doing it, so we should have perfected it by now. But that was not the case this week.

Despite the fact that we’ve been planning on having the jello fight on Thursday of this week since May (or really, since September of last year when I planned this theme week), we didn’t actually order the jello until earlier this week. But then there was an issue with the delivery and so it wasn’t here on Tuesday when we planned to make it.

We scrambled around and Cook G attempted to find extra packages at her school, but ultimately, we couldn’t scrounge enough. So we moved the jello fight to later on Thursday night. The food delivery was supposed to get to camp around 1pm, and if we were there waiting for it and could make jello as fast as we could, it should be enough time to set up for an evening jello fight.

Except that the truck was late and didn’t arrive until almost 3:30pm. PDS, APDA and I met the truck and made 60 gallons of jello in a record amount of time. And then we prayed that it would set so we could have a jello fight at 7pm.

But even prayer can’t make that much jello set. So our only option was to move the jello fight to Friday morning. The jello fight is the whole reason kids sign up for Ooey Gooey week. And we had 60 gallons of jello setting in the refrigerator, which is way too much to ever eat and expensive to just throw away. Friday mornings are busy with packing, closing ceremony and end of the week activities, so adding a jello fight (which is followed by jumping in the lake to wash off) not only would throw off the schedule, but would also mean that kids would be putting freshly sticky and wet clothes into their suitcases (which ordinarily would be packed and ready to go first thing in the morning).

Lead Staff and I sat down and re-worked the schedule. If we kept everything right on time, it would be possible to squeeze it in without losing anything. So right after praise and worship (which was supposed to be right before the jello fight), I took all of the staff with me and PDP went into the chapel to tell the kids the plan.

I explained the importance of sticking to the schedule, being organized, giving the kids clear expectations and let them know that each cabin would also have a Lead Staff member assigned to help get the kids from the beach, changed into dry clothes, finish packing, get their stuff out to the field, and stay on schedule.

Meanwhile, in the chapel, PDP went with a strategy I wouldn’t ever recommend- he let the kids vote. He told them an elaborate story of how we are all set to have a jello fight, but then someone offered us MORE jello, but it wasn’t ready yet. So we could have “a regular jello fight tonight, or we could have an EXTREME jello fight tomorrow”. And then he let them vote. They voted to play Capture the Flag last night and have an EXTREME jello fight today.

When PDP told me his strategy, I marveled at his gumption. “What was your back up plan if they voted to have the jello fight tonight?” I asked. He didn’t have one. Impressive. Or crazy.

But in the end, everything worked out. Our plan went perfectly today and we were even slightly ahead of schedule. Kids left camp still slightly sticky, but very happy. Success.