We had a few good activities with the Youth this past month, including a career night, a gymnasium size board game put on by the Young Women, and some Navy Seal training. Last week we were invited by the Panorama ward Young Men to go down to the Police station and take a tour of the facilities. The first leg of the tour was the K9 unit. The officer showed us all the gear associated with training the animals, and then we got to meet his four-legged thug-tenderizer, and watch a simulated take-down. There are currently 17 active police dogs in Calgary, including the Labs that work at the airport. I'm told they all love kids....for desert!
The next part of the tour was spent with the traffic cops, and all their high-tech gadgetry. This portion was obviously the most boring for the kids, but seemed to stir-up the most questions from the adults in the crowd. The officer had to explain that there was no secret maneuver or specific shape of car that could help you avoid the RADAR guns, or the LASER detectors. We got a tour of the Checkstop bus and a few kids got the Breathalyzer, and we were off to meet the tactical unit.
This portion was the biggest hit with the boys, as every video game these days that doesn't feature a portly Italian plumber, seems to revolve around these types of guys. First they showed us a dated video on the roles, training, equipment, and specialties of the tactical unit, and then we were introduced to several instruments of pain and sorrow that they employ on a routine basis. They showed us their sniper rifles, shotguns, bean-bag ammunition, grenades of various make, body armour, pepper sprays, and the ever popular TASER. Most Police officers I know or have met are pretty serious about their job, but none more serious than the tactical guys, except maybe Robocop, he was all business.
I'm hoping to be able to plan more activities where we get out of the church building, but planning has taken a serious hit the past while due to the absence of leaders. One of my councilors has been out of the country for most of the month, another one's wife just had a baby, and my secretary moved to another ward. I'm running out of fresh ideas and would appreciate any input from any readers.
2 comments:
You guys should make an instructional video of some sort. It's a decent way to teach the kids a few concepts while making it fun. It doesn't matter if the final video is very educational.
We made a short film about personal fitness and hygiene for a scout badge once. It turned out to be pretty funny.
Sounds like your running a tight shop all on your own. I sure do miss the fun things I learned... And some of th enot so fun things too. like learning about ROCKS...
Oh well.
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