This morning I got an email from Alison Knights Bramble from the BVI Watersports Centre seeking donations of clean, empty containers (plastic or metal–everything from tin cans to gallon jugs) as well as full bottles–"anything from tomato ketchup to champagne," she wrote then added, "Really, can be anything in a bottle as long as it's unopened. Say a bottle of Coke or olive oil."
All the donations are going to be used for games at the stalls of the Special Olympics BVI Grand Fete at Manuel Reef Marina on July 11th. The games Mrs. Knights Bramble mentioed in the email were ones I'd never heard of–coconut shy, lucky dip, a bottle stall?
A little research on Wikipedia taught me that Coconut Shy is a game where players toss balls at coconuts which are balanced on posts. Hmmm…doesn't sound too hard. There must be some trick to it. But I guess it's the "Hmmm…it doesn't sound too hard" appeal that attracts most patrons to carnival games.
Lucky Dip sounds really fun, though maybe a little dangerous considerning it involves archery. Again,Wikipedia did not let me down. Apparently, Lucky Dip is played where players shoot arrows or darts at a target without knowing what they're aiming for. Then, a random set of scoring rules is pulled from a bag that contains several different ways to score. Scoring rules could include such random instructions as "missing the target scores 10" or "two or more arrows in the same color score nothing."
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A bottle stall, I'm assuming, is when a player had to knock down a stack of bottles, but I could be wrong because names like "Coconut Shy" and "Lucky Dip" aren't exactly self-explanatory.
I'm excited to see what Alison and her crew come up with for the festival, and I hope that the bottles of ketchup and olive oil are for something other than prizes. I guess I'll have to find out on July 11th.
If you'd rather donate something traditional for the day, the Grand Fete will also be having a bake sale to support the Special Olympics.
For more information, email Alison: [email protected].
