mutual activity: fear factor!

After weeks and weeks of planning, the night of the mutual activity planned by the Mia Maids came and went. And I must say, it was more successful than I had thought it was going to be. It was nice to see all of our hard work pay off, and to see a lot of laughing faces.

Originally, the activity was going to be Fear Factor with a lot of scary things, but it eventually evolved into Fear Factor with gross things as well. Nonetheless, it was insanely fun. I'm going to share how we did it, what some of the stations were, and more (including some pictures). Maybe it will inspire your own Fear Factor mutual activity!

This specific activity was combined with both the YM and YW. When everyone got there, we had already divided everyone into groups and written it down on a list. We had seven stations, so there were seven groups with about five people on each group (not everyone in our ward showed up, usually there are around 60 youth). It still ended up being a good turn-out. Then, each group went to a station. At the station was a poster-board with the name of the Fear Factor activity, plus a scorecard that stayed at that station, where the station leader (a YM or YW leader) kept score of everyone's time.

At the end, when everyone had gone to each station, someone would take the top times or scores from each station, tally up the points, and find the winning team. Tonight, it was actually my team! Yay! As a prize, we just gave out big candy bars (but don't forget the bragging rights ;).

I'll write about each station, how we played that specific activity, and things needed for it.

(poster, large bowl, kitty litter, tootsie rolls, keys, lock, blindfold)

This station was not only super fun to prepare, but also fun to watch. To prepare, take the large bowl and put the key-chain filled with multiple keys (only one of them should work on the specific lock) at the bottom. Fill the bowl with kitty litter and then unwrap the tootsie rolls and place them in the bowl. Here comes the fun part. When the group comes to the table, select only two people. One of them will have their arms tied up with a lock. The other person will be blindfolded and have to stick their hands into the kitty litter to not only find the key-chain, but then (while blindfolded) figure out which key fits into the lock. No one else can help them. The team wants to have the fastest time, so make sure you have something to time them with. On the note card, keep track of each group's time and at the end, figure out who was fastest. They will be awarded the points. 

(poster, small Dixie cups, smoothie concoction)

This one was downright awful to partake of. For the smoothie, you can put in anything you want. Frozen vegetables, kale, fruit, etc. However, the person we put in charge of creating the concoction was a complete psychopath (love ya, Jenna) and put in the following: cream of mushroom, lemon juice, peanut butter, blueberries, cheese, maple syrup, tomato, lettuce, salsa, mayo, olives, mustard, salt, honey, and Cheetos. I swear it's like she opened her fridge and spilled all the contents into a blender. Something is telling me it was a health code violation. For this one, we had three cups placed on the table. They were all the same size, but each had different amounts of the smoothie. The smallest amount was worth two points if you drank it, the second size was worth four points, and the third size was worth six. So, in total, the team could earn twelve points altogether if all the cups were emptied. I definitely suggest reading off the list of ingredients in case anyone has any allergies, and also have a trash can close by. I swear I almost puked. Having it was fine, but trying to swallow...I almost hurled. Mine tasted like cold peanut butter with a hint of salsa. My stomach felt sick for the next three stations. Luckily, my friend had very strong mint gum for me afterwards. As you can see below, however, the smoothie actually looked like a blueberry/raspberry smoothie. So deceitful. For points, just list all the teams on the note card and tally their points. 

Go Sierra! Take that shot!

(poster, set of scriptures)

This one was very easy to prepare. All we had to do was pick a scripture mastery (we chose Matthew 5:16). Then, we wrote the scripture out on a big piece of poster board and cut it out into words or small phrases and placed them in a plastic bag. We gave the group their bag, and once we started the timer, they had to place it in the correct order and read it out loud to make sure it was right. Also, they had to have turned to the right page. We wrote down their times on the note card, and again gave the points to whichever team ended up being the fastest. 

(poster, can of whipped cream, paper plates, bubble gum, plastic toy bug)

This one was fun to watch, too. One person was selected from the group and put in front of the paper plate. Then, while their eyes were closed, the station leader put the plastic toy bug on the paper plate and also the piece of unwrapped bubble gum. They then covered both objects in whipped cream. When the contestant opened their eyes, they had to shove their faces into the whipped cream and retrieve the gum and blow a bubble with it. Obviously, if you picked the wrong pile of whipped cream and got the bug, you would most likely get a slower time. Points were awarded based on the fastest time it took to blow a bubble. Bringing napkins would be a good idea, too. 

(poster, dried carrots, bandana)

This station incorporated the three-legged race idea. Two people from the team each put a dried carrot in their mouth. Then, they were tied at the ankles by a bandana. They could not use their hands AT ALL throughout the race. They had to hop together from one line to another line without dropping the carrots from their mouths. They earned a point for each time they got down to the line and back. If they dropped the carrots at any time, they had to restart the entire thing from zero. 

(a gross/unusual food item, trash can, paper plate, bandanas)

This one was awful. A lady in our ward went to an Asian market and bought some dried squid (pictured below) and cut it up into tiny pieces and put it on a plate. She covered the large squid that hadn't been cut up with a bandana, and left the tiny cut-up squares uncovered on a plate. Each member of the team got five points each for the team if they ate a piece and swallowed it. Each person could only have three pieces, however, which could add up to each member earning their team fifteen points. The squid tasted like crab, but left such an awful, gross aftertaste I couldn't get rid of. It was so dry and chewy. After they ate it, she showed them what was underneath the bandana. 

(poster, bowl, gross water, fake/plastic bugs, snakes, army men, dinosaurs, etc.)

For this one's preparation, we took the large bowl and filled it with water. Then, we put in some extra kitty litter from the other station mixed in with some cold noodles and Spaghetti-Os. It ended up really gross and murky-looking. Then, we filled it with plastic bugs, snakes, army men, and dinosaurs. After that, one person from the team was blindfolded and they had to use their hands to retrieve as many plastic bugs as they could within the time limit. After the time was up, they counted how many bugs they had gotten. HOWEVER, if they had taken out any plastic snakes, army men, or dinosaurs, they was a negative point for each one that wasn't a bug. In my team, my friend Jimmy got 23 bugs, but he had 2 dinosaurs. So we ended up earning 21 points. 

There was a good amount of time left over, so we used the extra time to play a game called Ant Hill that we had learned how to play at EFY. It was a great time-killer, and everyone had fun. For refreshments, everyone got a clear, plastic cup filled with chocolate pudding topped with crushed Oreos and a gummy worm to resemble dirt. It was very delicious dirt! 

Everyone had an awesome time based on the responses I received. All-in-all, I think it was very successful! I definitely would recommend this activity for a fun, yet incredibly gross and interesting night.