Video Scavenger Hunts

The leaders of youth groups and scout troops are always looking for fresh, exciting ways to engage their students and to have a few laughs. The same old things over and over again become boring, and when kids stop having fun, they don't attend their group meetings. Students between the ages of 13 and 17 are often the most difficult to retain because there are scores of other activities vieing for their attention: friends, band, choir, members of the opposite sex, and of course, the television. If you don't have something exciting planned, then you probably won't have much of a turn-out.

One of my favorite things to do each year with my youth group is the Video Scavenger Hunt. It allows the students to get out and about with an adult, and do wacky, zany things all over the neighborhood. I think that it affords them a sense of independence because they aren't cooped up in a meeting room with adults watching over everything they do; video scavenger hunts let them exercise their creativity.

Before you decide to hold a video scavenger hunt, however, there are a few things that you will need: at least one adult for every group of 4-5 students; one video camera for each group; a meeting room with a television and a VCR; a suitable vehicle for each group of 5-6 people; and the ability to think up fun, interesting activities.

Preparation

Some planning should take place before the event. The group leaders need to get together and plan exactly how it will work out. There should be a certain distance limit that each group can travel (say, a ten-mile radius from your meeting place) and a time when everyone will meet back at the meeting place. I usually give my kids about two hours for this activity, but you can customize that time to fit your schedule.



You should know how many students will show up for the activity, and recruit enough adult volunteers with cars to suit that number. Each group should have 4-5 members, so plan for that kind of crowd. The adult volunteers should have enough seatbelts in their vehicle to accomodate their group size.