I decided to throw an event. Ready, steady, another group chat!

The grind of the Vancouver winter was coming to a halt and I needed a challenge. I trained all winter for the Vancouver BMO Marathon in May and the film union strike loosened after months of deliberations, things were looking up and I felt I could do anything. Sun meant outdoor activities and so a sports day would get everyone together. I tried thinking back to my school sports days when I was a younger and what kinds of sports days wedo. Some obvious ones came to mind: egg and spoon, sack race, tug-of-war, BOOT TOSS. I wanted it to feel exactly like that, where there's some proper competition but it's all fun at the end of the day. I wanted watersports on a hot day. And, because it was for adults, I wanted it to be a party at the same time.

The 2nd annual sports day took place at it's home grounds of Canvaron Park, Kitalano. I put out some feelers and gathered 40 of my friends to the event in sunny June and, with a few personnel adjustments and swaps leading up to the event, we had 4 teams of 10.

I thought of some games we could do that were easy to set up, with simple rules and that were .1#enough physical to call it a sport but not so that it excludes any of the competitors. I knew some of my friends are very competitive people and some were just there for a day out but didn't think they were going to get scouted for the Canucks.

CAPTURE THE FLAG

To get things warmed up we had our first of two drinking games, what your drank was your own choice.

Set up like a football field and using cones, there are two boxes at either end, two sidelines and a halfway line. All four teams play with two team on each side playing together. Before starting each player puts a can into the box on the far end of the field. The aim is to run to that box, drink your drink and bring the empty can back, without getting caught. The teams with the most empty cans in their box wins.

EGG AND SPOON

Team line up and each team memebe has to walk and go around a cone with the spoon in their mouth

KICKBALL

One perfect feature of Canvaron Park is a lovely public softball field. We had the ideal set up

SHEET VOLLEYBALL

Volleyball but with a sheet held at four corners. You can catch the ball with the sheet

TUG OF WAR

I had a paddling pool in the middle so whoever lost got a bit extra soaked

BLINDFOLD BUCKETS

Team stands in line from tallest to shortest, blindfolded. They have to pour the bucket over their head to the bucket behind then. The team with the most water let at the end wins

I also had to feed 40 people, accounting for 3 vegetarians, which is no small feat. Considering most will eat a burger some would prefer a sausage but, since it was a long day, all people will be hungry. Thats a lot fo burgers, sausages, buns, cheese, tomato, onion, ketchup, mustard, cutlery, napkins.

Some other things that I needed are a gazebo, speaker for music and microphone, barbeque, tables, etc.

To put it all together was a lot of work and I couldn't have done it without the help of friends. It's was such a fun event and I thought it went really smoothly. Everyone I talked to afterwards said it was so fun for them. It has me thinking about next year and what I would change or add to the event. Maybe my time management could be more structured as we often lost people to bathroom breaks, which upset he flowmof the day. Also, having enough water standing by for all the events was a bit of a challenge. We pulled it off but it was thanks to the great facilities nearby.