Archives by: Mike Taggart

This hunt works like a grand shopping trip. Take your youth group to a mall and divide them into teams. The object of the game is for the teams to locate and purchase items beginning with each letter of the alphabet (maximum of 26) with the least amount of money. The maximum allowable amount to be spent on items is $10.00. We usually give the teams 2 hours to complete the shopping adventure. Depending on the size of the mall you can limit the number of items purchased from each store. We have Dollar Stores in our area so we only allow one (1) item from that store. Each item presented to the judges at the end must be accompanied with a sales receipt. Some malls have stores in them that would be objectionable to youth groups to go in. We make these stores off limits. No one is allowed leave the mall proper and if the mall is an indoors mall, no one is allowed to go outside the mall doors. The judges award points for the largest object, the smallest object, the funniest and the most unique. We will usually pre-tour the mall a few days in advance and select items that are high point mystery items. If the teams are lucky enough to buy one of these items they receive the extra points. The winning team is treated to treats from the mall food court. This is easy on the adult leaders, great any time of the year and is a lot of fun to see just what the kids will come up with.