You go to Sheumann Lodge to check-in after your night off from the campers. Counselors spill into the room wearing polos and skirts instead of their normal uniform of tie-dye t-shirts and Nike shorts. Everyone takes advantage of the air conditioning and wireless internet access before heading back to their cabins.
"Have you guys signed up for the Lake Ladies t-shirt?" Michelle asked. She stood by the glass doors of the dining hall where sign-ups for Lake Lady t-shirts, staff sweatpants, Buffalo Brother tanks, Warrior t-shirts, Pathfinder jerseys, staff sweatshirts, and Lake Village t-shirts were all taped up covering the entire area.
"People will sign-up for anything," Arielle said. "We could put a sign-up for anything there and people would want one just because everybody else was signing up."
"Let's do it," I told her, "What's something we would never actually make that we could put up there?"
Everyone in the fellowship room started shouting ideas for the pseudo-sign-up. Ponchos... fanny packs... visors... vests... kilts... ties... bathrobes...capes...
"YES! Capes. We'll make an order form for capes. That would be awesome. We can put one in each village and see which one has more counselors sign up."
I ran into the office and came back with two pieces of extra long pale purple paper. Arielle and I knelt in front of the bench and wrote out identical forms laughing hysterically as we figured out what we should include.
Camp Tecumseh YMCA Capes
(Blue with Collar Approx $12)
Name: Size: Super Hero Name (Optional):
Everyone in the room concurred that we should have a handful of people who knew the truth sign-up so it would look legit.
Sarah Wright Medium Teach
Arielle Brosman Small Lil Mermaid
Maria Craner Large M-Dawg
Molly Gigax Medium Mollsballs
Stacey Leeds Medium LX-Leeds
Kristyn Burke Small Burke-a-nator
Zach Clark X-Small Ducky
Everyone was sworn to secrecy. If anyone asked you if the sign-up was real you could only smile and answer, "We're ordering capes. Do you want to order one?"
Arielle taped her copy up on the Lake Village door and I would put the River form on the chalkboard in the Main Lodge. We wanted to see which village would have more sign-ups but were unsure of whether a lot of sign-ups for capes was a good or bad thing.
Word began to spread about the capes. All week long I had people coming up to me and asking, "How do I know what size cape I am?" or, "What color blue? How big is the collar?" and "Are we printing CAMP TECUMSEH under our super-hero name?" It took all of my self-control to not laugh and just respond with our uniform answer, "We're ordering capes. Do you want to order one?" until they walked away still confused about the sizing of capes and why I wouldn't answer their question. Then I would run across the dining hall to talk to Kristyn about how people were buying into the ploy.
Harry Potter fanatics signed up first. They were excited that they would have their very own cape just like Harry, Ron and Hermione. Groupthink urged more people to sign their name on the list just like we had predicted a few nights before. Sign-ups were neck-and-neck between River and Lake Village counselors. No one ever told me they doubted the validity of sign-up and I wondered where would you even order capes?
Friday night all of camp comes together at closing campfire- our deadline for cape sign-ups. Arielle and I both brought the sheets with names of people who were ready to hand over $12 for a blue cape with collar. River Village had 28 names on the sheet and Lake Village came in second with 22 names. We took a picture with the sheets to document the social experiment. How to break the news to everyone? What do these results say about us?
Show choir made a reference to the cape social experiment during their closing campfire performance. A few people noticed and jumped up in outrage. The next Sunday at the staff meeting Arielle and I asked Scott to make an announcement that it had all been a hoax. Multiple people came to me asking if we could make it real sign-up since so many people wanted a cape but where do you order capes? Weeks later a counselor that had never caught on asked me, "Hey, when are our capes coming in?" I had to break the news to her that there weren't going to be any Camp Tecumseh capes this summer.
Word began to spread about the capes. All week long I had people coming up to me and asking, "How do I know what size cape I am?" or, "What color blue? How big is the collar?" and "Are we printing CAMP TECUMSEH under our super-hero name?" It took all of my self-control to not laugh and just respond with our uniform answer, "We're ordering capes. Do you want to order one?" until they walked away still confused about the sizing of capes and why I wouldn't answer their question. Then I would run across the dining hall to talk to Kristyn about how people were buying into the ploy.
Harry Potter fanatics signed up first. They were excited that they would have their very own cape just like Harry, Ron and Hermione. Groupthink urged more people to sign their name on the list just like we had predicted a few nights before. Sign-ups were neck-and-neck between River and Lake Village counselors. No one ever told me they doubted the validity of sign-up and I wondered where would you even order capes?
Friday night all of camp comes together at closing campfire- our deadline for cape sign-ups. Arielle and I both brought the sheets with names of people who were ready to hand over $12 for a blue cape with collar. River Village had 28 names on the sheet and Lake Village came in second with 22 names. We took a picture with the sheets to document the social experiment. How to break the news to everyone? What do these results say about us?
Show choir made a reference to the cape social experiment during their closing campfire performance. A few people noticed and jumped up in outrage. The next Sunday at the staff meeting Arielle and I asked Scott to make an announcement that it had all been a hoax. Multiple people came to me asking if we could make it real sign-up since so many people wanted a cape but where do you order capes? Weeks later a counselor that had never caught on asked me, "Hey, when are our capes coming in?" I had to break the news to her that there weren't going to be any Camp Tecumseh capes this summer.
We are so getting capes for summer 2011...
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