On Thursday October 23rd Michigan State University’s chapter of SCOUT BANANA hosted our main event of the semester, Capture the Banana. The event was a take on a traditional game of capture the flag with real bananas used as “flags”. We played in the area surrounding Beaumont Tower on campus with sidewalks and roads as boundaries. Yearbook staff was there to take pictures as the yellow and red teams, distinguished by colored arm bands, hid their bananas and began to play. Our first game began at 7 and lasted about an hour, with the second game lasting 30 minutes.

One especially entertaining part of our version of capture the flag was the live banana (a chapter member in a banana suit) running around the area every few minutes. If you tagged the banana all your prisoners were set free. At the end of the event every player received prizes donated from local businesses including free burrito or coffee coupons and t-shirts from the bookstore, making the event charge of 3 dollars per player definitely worth it.

After purchasing fabric for armbands, bananas, and raffle tickets, it only cost about 12 dollars for our club to host this event. We began advertising two weeks in advance with flyers on and around campus and a Facebook event. We expected about 100 people to come play but our actual count was 30. Unfortunately we were competing with an Invisible Children event on campus the same night!

Capture the Banana was a very easy event to put together with a lot of appeal for college students looking for a fun and slightly ridiculous way to spend their evening. Participants also had the opportunity to add their names to our listserve to get more information about our chapter meetings and activities. Finally, we are happy to report that only one banana was squished in the planning and playing of this game.

Tags: Facebook, Invisible Children, Michigan State University, SCOUT BANANA