Kids Shine at Picnic! December, 1997

By Laurel Blackburn

The weather may have been on the chilly side but watching the kids and several of the Tiger Sharks play games together was enough to warm anyone's heart.

I want to thank Dan Lupo, Wade Fennig and Kirk DeWaele for all the help they gave me with the games. I had all of my games carefully planned with kids 6-12 years old in mind. What I ended up with were kids 3-10 years old.

The equipment relay was meant to be played by kids capable of dressing themselves. The idea was for kids to put on the equipment, run to the finish line and back and then pass off the equipment to the next kid. Half of the kids I ended up with were too young to tie their own shoes.

I saw my career as the Kid's Club coordinator slowly going down the tubes. With a little quick thinking, some flexibility, and the help of Dan, Wade and Kirk the relay was better than I could have ever planned. Wade began the game with a "quick" demonstration of the proper order in which a hockey player puts on his equipment. The first and most important piece of equipment, according to Wade, was unnecessary for this particular group, that being the all-important "protective cup". The only cups these kids were used to were little sippy cups with lids on them.

One player was placed on each team and put in charge of actually dressing the kids in full equipment, minus the skates and cups.

This was not an easy task, I should know, I have a three year old. I've spent many a morning chasing my son through the house with Spiderman underwear in one hand and socks in the other. Even with the kids willing to get dressed, this was a lot harder then we thought.

Once the kids were dressed many of them could hardly walk. All you could see were helmets on top of really huge hockey pants waddling towards the finish line.

If you weren't there, do yourself a favor and ask someone who was there to show you the pictures. A picture is truly worth a thousand words in this case.

Wade's team was victorious in the relay and the sack races. I have the feeling if we reviewed the tape we might find some illegal carries on Wade's team. Kirk's team took home a well-earned 2nd place and bringing up the rear was Dan's team.

I don't think that anyone cared who won or lost. All I know is that for about a half an hour I forgot how chilly it was outside.

This article is courtesy of the Shark Bytes Newsletter and The Fin-Atics Booster Club. All rights reserved.

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