CHASE HUNSAKER EDUCATION 204 PROFESSOR FOX Sustainability Project

What was Family Game Night? In a world dominated by phones, iPads, and other technology, it’s easy to forget about the important things in life. One such thing is familial relationships. I hosted Family Game Night to show families the importance of building and maintaining relationships within their households. It was held on April 24, 2015 in Murtaugh, Idaho at the local church and was open to all members of the community.

Advertising I advertised for Family Game Night by placing a post on Facebook on the Murtaugh community page and hanging flyers at the local store and the school.

Letter to Church This is the letter that I sent our local church to see if I would be able to host the game night there. They were very prompt and called me within a few days. The members of the church were extremely willing to let me use the church and even helpful in giving me a few ideas.

What Occurred To me, the point of this project was to spend a day with families helping them reconnect with one another. Everyone arrived and I gave a speech, explaining to them what I believed this project to be about and what would be happening that day. We did four activities, dividing everyone up into families. The activities were an egg run, blind Pictionary, Pass the Hula-Hoop, and a balloon toss. Afterwards, we ate snacks and discussed how to maintain strong relationships and I got everyone’s opinions about how they enjoyed the game night.

Speech I gave a short (we had many toddler aged children who were ready to play!) speech introducing myself and this project: “Thank you all for coming out. My name is Chase Hunsaker and tonight is a night for families to have fun without electronics – no phones, iPads, or any outside distractions. I feel like this day and age, we, as a society, focus too much on our electronics to entertain us that we don’t spend time together and strengthen our family units. So hopefully tonight you will enjoy some family entertainment. Everyone please turn off your phones and try and enjoy yourselves! Thanks!”

The Egg Run For the egg run, all of the families lined up. Each member had to run from one side of the gymnasium to the other and back while holding an egg on a spoon. If the egg fell, they had to start again. Although this just seemed like a fun game, everybody learned that if you got frustrated with one another, you didn’t do as well. But, if everyone was encouraging, you did better!

Blind Pictionary During blind Pictionary, one member of the family would turn away, one would draw, and the other members would describe the drawing. Then, the person that was turned away would have to guess what was being drawn. The families saw they really had to work together to guess the drawings!

Pass the Hula-Hoop Pass the Hula-Hoop is a game where everyone stands in a circle, holding hands. Someone starts with a hula-hoop on their arm and they have to pass it from person to person without ever letting go. Each person had to really help the others and discuss the best way to get the hula-hoop from person to person.

Balloon Toss This game is fairly simple: don’t let the balloon touch the floor. Everyone stood in a circle and they weren’t allowed to move their feet. The families had to work together and not get competitive by hitting the balloon too hard.

Reflection I really enjoyed this project. It was a lot of fun to spend time with members of my community and to feel that I was showing them that they don’t always have to be playing with their electronics. Did I make a permanent change in these families lives? I don’t know, but I hope so. I hope they learned that family relationships are more important than Facebook and Pinterest. I loved being able to see everyone having fun in ways that I did as a kid and not on an Xbox. If I had to do it again, I would want to have more activities for them to do because by the time we had finished, nobody was ready to go! We had so much fun and nobody wanted to leave. I would also hope that more people would show up. We did have about thirty people, but the more the merrier!

Direct Quotes “It was a great night; so nice to have any cell phones going off and no T.V. What a perfect night.” – male (57 years) “I had a great time. The adults seemed to have a terrific time and the kids had an absolute great time. It was so fun to get together and renew our relationships.” – female (55 years) “It was totally awesome to spend time with my entire family!” – female (8 years) “We had an amazing night. To set down our phones and just enjoy each other’s company and conversation.” - female (28 years) “It was a lot of fun. I would totally do it again. - male (11 years) “I couldn’t believe how much fun I had. This was a perfect opportunity for us to take time out of our busy schedules, put down our electronics, and spend some quality time with each other.” – female (16 years)

Resources family/tech-support-for-parents/cell-phone-rules activities building through-team-building/