Spring has arrived! If you need some fun, fresh, & frugal contact work ideas, you’re in luck. Grab your middle and high school friends and make some memories.
Dog Park/Animal Shelter
If you have a dog, take your dog and some of your middle and high school friends to a local dog park. If you don’t have a dog, visit a local pet store or animal shelter.
Putt, Pitch, Punish
(The Happy Gilmore Young Life Invitational Golf Tournament)
Grab a group of middle or high school friends, a bag of golf clubs, and $15. Kids need no prior golf experience to enjoy this outing. Head to a local golf course that has a driving range, putting green, and chipping hole. Pay $5 to rent a bucket of balls. Hold three separate contests.
Putting
Start with putting. Practice, warm up and design a 6 hole putt-putt course on the putting green. Lowest score on the 6 holes wins a $3 milkshake afterwards.
Pitching
Pick a hole, either on the chipping green or driving range. Each participant gets 10 shots. Closest to the pin wins a shake.
Punish
Finish with the Punish Contest. Whoever can simply drive a golf ball the farthest wins. Each kid gets 10 balls.
After all 3 contests are over head to a local restaurant to celebrate the 3 winners and buy them milkshakes. You can also spice up the outing by encouraging guys to dress ‘golfy.’ Call the golf course ahead of time and ask permission. If you go during a low traffic time, like 5pm, most courses will give you the green light.
Foot Golf
Another fun twist on golf is the new and fast growing sport of soccer-golf or FOOT GOLF. Here’s an article explaining the game, but it’s basically playing golf with a soccer ball and your foot on a real course. I’ve yet to play, but it sounds amazing.
Stick Ball
My personal favorite. It’s simply a twist on baseball, playing on a tennis court with a broom handle and tennis balls. Buy a wooden broom and unscrew the handle from the bottom bristles. Use it for the bat and grab 6 tennis balls. It’s much harder than it looks to hit a tennis ball with a skinny broom handle. Watching people strike out is funny. Hit it over the tennis court fence for an automatic home-run. 3 strikes and you’re out, pretty much the same rules as baseball except only 2 bases, the net and home plate. Trust me, its a winner. We played a ton last spring/summer. It became a YL tradition.
Hiking
Take a group hiking. Ask your local outdoor store for advice on a good trail.
KanJam
KanJam is a fun and simple frisbee game. Think 2 on 2 Ultimate Frisbee in the back alley with trash cans as your end zone. Set it up in the parking lot of the local late night hang out spot beside a set of corn hole boards. You and your high school friends can be entertained for hours. It’s also a great pre-club hangout idea.
Build Your Own Frisbee Golf Course
Some friends and I recently mapped out a frisbee golf course around the local university. “Throw off the parking deck and hit the middle column on that building, par 4.” It’s free fun…unless you accidentally dent other people’s cars with your frisbee.
Cards On A Roof
Find a mostly flat roof on a not so windy night. Grab a few high school friends, a blanket (or lawn chairs and a folding table) and some playing cards. Add a set of iPhone speakers and 6 pack of Stewart’s Orange n Cream Soda. Bam. A night to remember.
Dizzy Shoe Game
Thanks to Mackenzie Olson for submitting this idea. Mackenzie writes, “Anytime we’re at camp or when there is nothing around to do, I like to con kids into playing the Dizzy Shoe Game. But I don’t call it that… I only ask if they want to play a game. I make everyone put one of their shoes, or a stick, over their head and make them look at it (this is key to the game- the looking up part) and I make them spin around as fast as they can 15 times. Always screaming for them to spin faster. Once they get to 15 they are to throw the shoe and attempt to jump over it. If they truly looked up, and truly spun 15 times quickly, there is zero chance of succeeding and 100 percent chance of laughing very hard. A word of Caution: this is ALWAYS to be done on grass.” Thanks Mackenzie for this fun idea. I’ve already used it multiple times when hanging out with my high school friends and it’s been hilarious.
And of course…
You can always build an Eno village or
If you have other ideas to add email me here. -Drew Hill
