Hashtag the Pirate

We always like to have some sort of skit at the beginning of chapel in the evening to make the kids laugh.  Sometimes we are successful, and other times not so much.  Because our theme was Treasure Island, Phil & I got an idea for a bit involving a pirate that grew into many good laughs over the summer.  We got the idea from watching Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show.  Jimmy has a regular bit involving guy in panda suit.  It's called Hashtag the Panda.  You can see some of the bit here.

So Hashtag the Pirate barged into the chapel every evening to wreak a little havoc.  Sometimes he challenged campers to games of skill.  Other times he kidnapped someone on the staff and held them for ransom.  He lobbed "cannonballs" on us from the loft of the chapel.  When asked why he was doing all this his answer was, "Because I'm a pirate."

Sometimes he made some of our friends walk the plank.  Fortunately we were ready for him, and we sent a submarine to save them.

During the last week we were trying to come up with some new things for Hashtag to do. (You get tired of doing the same bit every week.)  As we talked at the dinner table, someone mentioned sword fighting.  One of the staff kids, Alex, jumped all over that.  He spends a lot of time thinking of characters for video type games, the weapons they might use, and the moves they might make.  He will demonstrate them for you at the drop of a hat.  So we created a storyline that involved Alex fighting Hashtag.   When I asked Alex about the skit after it was over, he was beside himself.  "That was so exhilarating!" he told me.  It was one of my favorite moments of the summer. 

Another time I loved was our snack time entertainment on Thursday nights of camp.  Hashtag would come in and we would call up different campers to dance with Hashtag.  Random music would play, and they would all dance to whatever type of music came up.  At the end everyone who wanted to would get up and dance with Hashtag to "Cotton-Eyed Joe."  I don't have any great pictures of this because all the motion makes them very blurry.  But I did get a couple of the slower waltzes he did with some of the girls.

Hashtag ended up being quite a hit with all the campers.  All summer a host of different staffers played Hashtag, and the kids were always kept guessing about who Hashtag really was.  Hashtag even got mail once from a camper who said she knew who Hashtag really was.  Hashtag became a great part of our activities and our conversations, and I'm really glad he joined us for our summer fun.