Spring 2006
Students play circle tag during
the team-building event.
On Feb. 25, the LRC hosted the largest team-building event in its history. More than 300 Pacific Islander students—high schoolers involved with an outreach program sponsored by Pacific Islander Association—from the Long Beach area participated in some of the center’s most popular team-building exercises.
The LRC kicked things off with a bingo game designed to encourage students to get acquainted. Students were divided into two groups. Group members raced to fill their bingo card with names of people who had been scuba diving, were an only child, were in a band or could name all seven dwarfs. The activity proved to be socially challenging and forced students to interact. Winners were awarded with candy bars.
Another activity enlisted students to play Hyper-Herbie, an exercise in which each group was given a piece of PVC pipe that was cut in half. Using the pipe, the team had to roll a marble from points A to B without dropping it. Team members had to work together to achieve success. Throughout the exercise, students practiced communication and problem solving techniques, while having fun in the process.
Finally, the students were divided into groups of 12 and participated in three activities that included the human knot, circle tag and the toppling pyramid. The students particularly enjoyed circle tag, a game where participants must hold hands and protect each other from the person who is “it.”
Overall, the event was a resounding success. Students had fun while learning and the team-building specialists achieved their training goals to great satisfaction. —Matthew Palmer
