Tuesday, April 8, 2008

The Ultimate Salesman

Most of you who were campers or counselors during the mid 80's will remember Jerry Moore. How could you forget his easy smile or gentle nature? He spent most of his time in Sports and Recreation, and as even an AD. I think his second greatest accomplishment was the creation of Midget World- putting 32 six through nine year old boys in Senior 2 and living there for two weeks probably qualifies him for sainthood. But I bet that most of you have forgetten his greatest accomplishment was that of a salesman.

Jerry came up with an idea for an early evening program called Ecco Ball. He would start at the Sunday Evening campfire promoting the greatest game in Fort Scott history. Campers that knew Jerry knew that this had to be something relating to a game with a ball, hence the name. Every evening at dinner, and every time he saw the kids at program, Jerry would talk about Ecco Ball. The kids even started chanting Ecco ball because they just could not wait until Thursday evening to play this wonderful game they knew nothing about.

Finally the big day came and the kids acted like it was Christmas morning. They lined up at the flagpole after dinner, nearly delerious with excitement.

The look on their faces was absolutely priceless when Jerry explained that the Ecco Ball was a plastic bag that they would fill with litter from around the camp. The bag that was filled the most would be the official winner and the winning team would get their choice of fruit......

It only worked once, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted. I think Jerry went into missionary work for a while, but he would have made a great salesman.

Ecco Ball Forever!!!!!!

3 comments:

William Meltebrink said...

I remember being really excited about it all week and being really dissapointed when he announced what it was. I'm going to try to use it in my classroom. Juniors in High School are easily fooled.

sara said...

hello my name's sara. my dad (fred hornback) used to work at camp...I never knew fred and was wondering if anyone had any stories or pictures to share...it would mean a lot. thanks so much

Sara

Anonymous said...

Any new posts Bob? I enjoy reading them.