Have A Camper Family Feud

By Lony Ruhmann

Shortly before I left for Beijing to work the Summer Olympic Games, I was asked by Camp Med, a licensed day care program and summer camp sponsored by the city of South Pasadena, Calif., to give a presentation to our campers. I thought if I just talked and the kids just listened, it could get kind of boring. Instead, I proposed an Olympic Family Feud.

The campers were divided into four groups. Each child in the winning group received a prize. The way it worked is that I asked a question and gave one specific group a chance to respond. Unlike television Family Feud where only one person can participate, anyone from the group could chime in here. The team leader would write down the best answer. If the answer was wrong, the question moved to the next group. If one group was noticeably weaker, they were given the easier questions.

You could see the wheels turning in the kids’ heads. They started thinking. They wanted to give the right answers. They wanted to win. They were having fun and so were the other counselors.

The questions asked required different skills--memory, reasoning and listening (to what I had talked about throughout the summer). Thanks to the internet, it was easy to come up with questions as multiple trivia, children’s and informational sites exist.

When I returned from the Olympics, the kids were interested in hearing about my experience. It was as if the Olympic Family Feud opened the door for them to be aware and interested in the Olympics. The event was such a success that we followed it up with a Halloween Family Feud. For that version, more jokes and questions with an element of levity were included. And there were more questions for our younger kids to answer.

Below are the questions (with answers) to both Family Feuds:

Olympic Family Feud

1. Where am I going tomorrow?
-China

2. The J in Beijing, how is it pronounced?
-As a Z

3. How far away is Beijing from Los Angeles?
-6300 miles

4. China is the third largest country in the world. What is the largest country in the world?
-Russia

5. What is the second largest country in the world?
-Canada

6. Which country is expected to win the most medals at the Summer Olympics?
-China

7. Where was the last Olympics?
-Turin, Italy

8. Which country won the most medals at the Winter Olympics in Italy?
-Germany (29)

9. The US won the second most medals. How many medals did the U.S. win in Italy?
-25

10. Who is shooting to win eight gold medals and what sport is he in?
-Michael Phelps, Swimming

11. Dara Torres is on the U.S. Olympic Swimming team. How old is she?
-41

12. Why have so many swimming world records been recorded in the last couple of months?
-The swimsuit: Speedo's LZR Racer.

13. What women’s sport will no longer be in the Olympics after this year?
-Softball

14. Why are some of the athletes not going to Opening Ceremonies?
-To avoid the air pollution

15. What kind of work do I do at the Olympics?
-Ticketing

16. Name this famous person I gave Olympic tickets to in Korea in 1988. Clue 1: He lives in California and is over 50. Clue 2: He’s been in science-fiction movies. Clue 3: He received weightlifting tickets.
-Arnold Schwarzennegger

17. Name this famous person I gave Olympic tickets to in Spain in 1992. Clue 1: He lives in California and is over 60. Clue 2: He was in 1 of the batman movies. Clue 3: He received basketball tickets.
-Jack Nicholson

18. How many Olympics have I worked on?
-11

19. Name a summer Olympic event that many find better to watch on T.V. than see in person?
-Gymnastics, diving, water polo

20. Where will the next Olympics be?
-Vancouver, Canada

21. What year?
-2010

22. What country did the Olympic Games originate over 2,700 years ago?
-Greece

23. As a 12-year-old-boy at the Mexico City Olympics, I was in attendance when Bob Beamon completely shattered a world record. He beat the previous world record by so much that Sports Illustrated named this 1 of the 5 greatest sports moments of the 20th century. What sport did he break the record in? Clue: It was in track and field.

Bob Beamon set a world record for the long jump with a jump of (29 ft. 2½ in.). It was one of the most astounding feats in the history of the Olympics. He shattered the record by more than 21 inches. It has since been called the perfect jump.

24. What Olympic moment did Sports Illustrated call the greatest sports moment of the 20th century? Clue: It happened at a Winter Olympics. Clue 2: It involved the United States.

In 1980 at Lake Placid, a group of amateur and collegiate hockey players from the U.S. defeated the best professional hockey team in the world, the Soviet Union, 4-3. This has since been named the Miracle on Ice.

Halloween Family Feud

1. What year did the first Casper the Friendly Ghost cartoon appear? 1924? 2004? 500 B.C.? 1945? The Middle Ages?
-1945

2. Boris Karloff played what famous movie character?
-Frankenstein

3. What do you get when you cross Bambi with a ghost?
-Bamboo

4. Bela Lugosi played what famous movie character?
-Dracula

5. How much does the world's biggest pumpkin weigh?
A. 245 pounds
B. 485 pounds
C. 685 pounds
D. 1,385 pounds (this one)

6.What famous movie character did Lon Chaney Jr. play. Clue: Michael J. Fox, also played this character.
-A werewolf

7. According to those silly, scary movies, when do werewolves come out?
-At Full Moons

8 What do birds give out on Halloween night?
-Tweets

9. Bodies that are wrapped in cloth and stored in tombs are known as what?
-Mummies

10. In folklore, a male witch is known as a?
-Warlock

11. As a Halloween treat, what chocolate candy bar do kids like best of all?
-Snickers

12. According to legend, which Halloween creature usually has all of the following--a unibrow, tattoos and a long middle finger?

A. werewolf (this one)
B. vampire
C. witch
D. golem
13. If you were to draw a witch, what specific item might you want to include on her face?
-Warts

14. A number of famous science-fiction and scary movies were filmed in South Pasadena. Name one.

-Back to the Future (1985)
-Back to the Future Part II (1989)
-Back to the Future Part III (1990)
-Halloween (1978)
-Halloween II (1981)
-Halloween: 25 Years of Terror (2006)
-Hell Night (1981)
-Jurassic Park III (2001)
-Prom Night (2008)
-Scream 2 (1997)
-Teen Wolf (1985)
-Terminator, The (1984)

15. What’s a monster’s favorite dessert?
-I-Scream

16. Name one of the five most popular Halloween costumes for kids in 2007.

-Princess (10.7%)
-Spider-Man (4.8%)
-Pirate (4.7%)
-Witch (4.2%)
-Fairy (2.8%