ACA Home Forums Camp "Pranks"

I know that some camps allow pranks and some don't I was wondering which camps do and how people feel about it, but I also wanted to hear some great prank stories! Weather you pro- camp prank or not everyone will find some of the stories funny I am sure. And I think that we could all use a few good laughs these days. (I stole this topic idea and the Answer and Ye Shall ask thread).

we've set up some guidelines for pranks at our camp (i.e. among staff only, etc)

over the last couple years:
* a few admin staff had a series of pranks on the director:
first off, a few years back we were trying to decide what to name the director's cabin, and some staff came up with the Loony Bin - though our director didn't like it. so it's kind of a camp joke that that's the cabins name.
anywho, one summer we gave her car new liscense plates that said "luny car" or some such. the same summer we labeled everything in her office - loony chair, loony stapler, loony office, etc. etc.
the same director also is not very fond of the song "Stuball" (about the race horse). so we decorated the camp golf cart like a horse and named it Stuball.

another group of counselors decided to transplant one of the kitchen/unit helpers bed into the dining hall - the cot, sleeping bag, pillow, and all - including the mosquito netting and her alarm clock! it was right before dinner, and all the campers thought it was funny!

those are the ones that come to mind right now.

One session with our horse girls, we got "permission" to do some pranks. So, we decided that we would go "raid" the candy store on camp and have a night swim.. Now, this was all totally ok'ed by the directors and stuff, and we had life guards and such so it was all safe and non rule breaking. But one of our little girls was such a big christian that she would not get in the pool b/c she thought she was lying to people and that she was going to go to hell. So us counselors had to tell her that it was all ok and that she was not lying about anything.
Jiff

The only real pranks at my camp are harmless safe things - and they all seem to happen the last week or two of camp, like stealing the lawn flamingos that lived outside the lifeguard's cabin and duct taping them to the flagpole...

This is all counselor to counselor stuff, campers don't really get involved.

Yo, we've had some pretty funny pranks, but we've also had them turn ugly, so we have rules too. My favorites as a camper involved counselors duct taping certain heavysleeping counselors to their beds. now I can see how this would be a safety hazard, but back then it was pretty funny. So now my favorite is a little project us EQ staff dreamed up called "Dawn Patrol" We get up before dawn, tack our horses, and ride through camp yelling like banshees and singing annoying wake up songs. Ussually we wake up the senior girls first (who like their beauty rest) and then hit the cabins in order of estimated wake up time (Juniors get up earlier, cause they're slower) Its GREAT. And the best part is noone knows if or when its going to happen .

haha! pranks at our camp are caller kapers and we do them a lot.. there are rules and we follow them.. but the best one this summer was one of the brits stole the golden toilet brush (an award given to the cleanest unit each day at lunch) and held it for ransom.. she let notes saying the scrapers (used to clean plates at meals) were feeling left out because we made a big deal over the toilet brush... so each unit followed the demands and recieved scrapers and we decorated them and they went everywhere with us! our nurses assistant (who awarded the brush each day) made pleas at lunch and we offered rewards.. it was soo funny!! after a week of this it was returned.. my unit found it, it was rigged up the flag pole and we found it when we arrived early to do flag that morning... i'm still not sure who did it... but the director kept questioning the new brits... it was a great all camp prank!!

the littler stuff we do between staff is fun.. such as hiding beds, sending people on scavenger hunts to find their belongings, when on the river taking their bed and giving them a canoe to sleep in... hehe i love pranks

We snuck into a fellow counselor's tent and took a baby doll she had brought... left a ransom note and even got some candy to replenish our stash with! Then, the doll went horseback riding with the girls. The stable employees thought we were a little nuts though...

The best prank that I've ever seen was done last summer by the counselors to the oldest girls in camp. It's kinda tradition that this happens. Anyway, some counselors gathered up all the alarm clocks they could and they set them all about 30-60 min apart starting at around 1am and lasting until like 6am. They strategically placed them throughout the cabin of the oldest girls. I mean these things were everywhere, like in the rafters above, in their bags, under beds, all over. It was so great, cause they had no idea where they were coming from and couldn't stop them from going off. This was HYSTERICAL!!!
As you know with every prank, there is one in return. So the next morning the girls put all the kayaks in camp up on the rafters in the dining hall. That wasn't as funny though.

Every few years the oldest female campers at my camp do the "Weanie" patrol. They sneak in all the bunks on girls side at night and hide raw hot dogs inside the beds of random sleeping girls. I was woken up last summer at 4am by a camper who woke me up to tell me she had a hot dog in her bed... and I was SO confused as to how it got there .. I thought for some reason she had hid it in there after the last BarbeQue and forgotten !!! LOL The oldest campers also once moved every single piece of funiture out of the Head Counselors office and placed in on the basketball court !! Exactly in the order and arrangement that it was in in the building !! lol

Only the counsellors take place in pranks at my camp. And it's usually done when there are no campers (since they go home sat. morning and the next group comes sunday.) Some people will do small pranks that campers will not see, like filling the Health and safety supervisor's fridge with bottle of ketchup and that sort of thing.

Aside from camper raids, there really were no pranks at my camp as a kid. The counselors and C.I.T's had plenty though.

I.E during the staff banquet, ( a lobster dinner for the counselors, served by the c.i.t ) the eldest campers had control of the other cabins. While the counselors were away, they steal their beds and hide them somewhere in camp.I had fun hiding them, but it took me acouple pain staking minutes to find my bed my c.i.t year.


Oh yeah and the counselors ( well mostly head staff ) had some really good pranks against our brother camp . . . . but they retaliated and painted our horses, raft and docks pink.

[This message has been edited by Fallenangelsbabi (edited April 01, 2003).]

CIT's are the only people allowed to prank and we are sure all counselors and campers abide by these rules.

Pranks seem to happen quite often at my camp and of course all harmless, cleared by our program director, and in some cases the other counselor is told before it. There are always the typical canoes, rowboats, etc in cabins. Spiderwebs made with string throughout the whole thing at times adorned with random shoes or notes. We have hung a cabins mattreses from high ropes. Put horse poop on porches. Underwear on the flagpole. Dining hall tables set up inside if tents in the dining hall. HAd a counselor stand on the roof of a cabin with a bucket of water while the kids make a lot of noise outside causing the other cabing to come out and the bam water on the head. And I am proud to have been a part of a few really good ones. 1) my cit year we each got a cabin up early and had them silently walk to a remote part of camp where we had cold milk and cereal waitin for breakfast. The joke came when the bell rang and as all of our directors woke and came for breakfast the entire camp was empty. 2) A few years ago when I was CIT leader we went out in the middle of the night and moved the entire dining hall outside so breakfast was outside that morning. Awesome and fun but it was cold... 3)Last summer my CITs and I took 4 counselors Jeeps, drove them in front of our dining hall (which is by the lake and rather hard to get to by car), filled them with balloons and lifejackets, and surrounded them with caution tape. Kids thought it was hilarious. Yes dont worry we asked the counselors for the keys and they pretended not to know what was going on. Campers had no idea or the CITS doing the prank with me. Ok wow that is more than enough, i will stop now.

Last summer someone from ad staff took the camp van in the middle of the night and used it to block the door to the dir cabin. Making it impossible for him to come out in the morning. Then at breakfast there were fliers floating around saying the dir has been captured. It was great because you can directly see the the dir cabin from the dining hall. So while we were all eating he was just staring at us from his porch! Eventually, we had to let him out...

When I was a camper, we were "controled" by a bell. A bell to wake up, a bell to eat, a bell to switch activites etc etc etc, you get it.

Anyway, the C.I.T's were in charge of the bell schedule, well one year we stole the bell and hid it under their own cabin! It was great. The head staff had to drive their cars around camp and blow the horn to wake us all up!

We also peanut buttered the bell acouple of time.

I was not apart of this prank but the head staff was. They drove to the brother camp. Snuck in, broke into their radio station and played a tape that had a few minutes silence before it played the most obnoxious music ever. They changed the locks and bolted before they got caught. The boys camp knew it was us, and they painted our horses and docks pink.

Summer 2001 I brought about 600 wooden spring loaded clothespins with me to camp "just in case." One day during dinner I sent a few campers, each with a clothespin, over to hug our ACD, Smokey. I showed them how to clip the clothespin discreetly on her shirt, shorts, shoes, hair, etc. She did not notice for several minutes, while we just cracked up. Gradually the clothespinning grew into this INSANE situation over the course of the summer. She was a great sport and would always pretend like she did not know the kids were pinning her. The campers LOVED it and would hunt me down at meals to get clothespins. (Smokey would "return" the clothespins to me every few days, by putting them in my bed or something like that)
It even became a great cure for homesickness for a few kids! They really got into it!

However, the ULTIMATE prank involved Smokey's golf cart. My 2 unit assistants and I took her golf cart in the middle of the night and parked it in front of the dining hall. Then we painted the entire thing Pepto Bismal pink (with Tempera paint which washes off with soap and water!). You must understand that Smokey is NOT a "pink" kinda girl! We filled the bed of the cart with pink balloons and tied pink bows all over it. We had also made a big crown out of poster board (complete with pink puff balls glued to the points of the crown). We taped the crown to the roof of the golf cart and then completed the project with a poster that said"Princess Smokey's Puff-mobile"
Here is a picture of the puffmobile on my website http://www.geocities.com/spiderandi/camp/puffmobile


YAY!

oops!
That link is not working right. add .jpg to the end and see if that works. Or you can just follow the links to the camp pictures off of my main page which is http://www.geocities.com/spiderandi

SORRY!

LOL! That's so funny :-D

A couple of summers ago the group of oldest campers pulled a pretty good prank on everybody. At about 4am they took out all the tables and chairs out of the dining lodge and scattered them all around camp. There were tables in the craziest places and chairs just about everywhere. Everyone woke up for breakfast to a little surprise. The kids didn't get into too much trouble, they just had to put it all back. It was quite a sight to behold, though. There was nowhere to sit in the lodge to eat breakfast! Everyone was laughing, it was good ole' harmless fun.