The first home run.
The first touch down.
The first “big one that got away.”
These are the kinds of moments that a man dreams about from the moment he finds out that he will be a father. Alliance Crossroads, the Catskills based chapter of Alliance LARP, gave me one of those moments this past weekend and I will be forever grateful.
Let me set the scene.
Alliance Crossroads holds four 18+ events per year. But, this year they decided to run a one day event and allow players to bring their children to experience the game.
I’ll be honest. I don’t know a kid under the age of 10 who WOULDN’T love the idea of dressing up like a warrior or a wizard and getting to fight monsters. I brought my 5 year old son, Evan. Let me tell you: This kid had a blast.
I didn’t know if the event could hold his attention for an entire day, but the brilliant staff wrote a story for the day that allowed the kids to be heroes while still giving them ample time for standard children’s camp activities like arts and crafts. They even found time to include a water balloon fight!
The event was well attended with 15 children that ranged in age from around 5 to 17. One would think that age range would have posed a problem, however the Alliance Crossroads staff handled it with ease. They simply divided the children into two groups and let the “older adventurers” and “younger adventurers” complete the same tasks, but just in a different order. They were really only in the same spot once or twice over the course of the day.
Here we are almost a week later and my son is still talking about his time there. I don't think he'll stop anytime soon. In fact, I'll bet it will continue until next year when they hold their next event!
I've taken the liberty of creating and posting a video on my Youtube channel to show you all just how much fun he had. Take a look for yourself!
Thank you Alliance Crossroads. You have stoked the smoldering fires of imagination in my son. You gave him a chance to be a hero, and in doing so made him happier than I have seen him in a very long time. See you next year!!!
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