Recently a couple of scout leaders called into the office in Grimsby entirely unaware we existed. We work with Scouting and Guiding groups all over the world, so when they arrived I explained the sorts of things we helped out with – and they left astonished that they had such a resource on the doorstep!
So, I thought I’d put together a quick blog post on what things we regularly help with when it comes to these youth organisations.
Fundraising
Scouting and Guiding groups are all run by volunteers with limited funds and when it comes to big activities, trips away etc, and it’s often up to the individual groups to fundraise.
There’s a number of different options when it comes to fundraising (there is a lot of blog posts on fundraising if you use the category menu you’ll find LOADS). But when they called in yesterday I went over the one we regularly suggest to scouting groups – which is our Skit and Clue based scripts.
These can be acted by the older Scouts and Guides (or Explorers or Rangers) or by the leaders themselves. The scripts are really easy to learn, or can be acted script in hand. They need minimal props. The guests can be parents with their children and the focus of the mystery plot is on exchanging clues to work out whodunit, so there’s no cross examination of the cast, which is what makes them so easy to perform.
The food can be pot-luck suppers, where guests bring something to share, or be catered very easily within the halls they regularly use, using pre-prepared meals from supermarkets. E.g. Garlic Bread, Ready made Lasagne and Salad, Vienetta (that’s posh ice-cream for those outside the UK who’ve not heard of it).
Various Scouting groups have raised money for trips, charities and other projects with these kits.
There are other formats of scripts available, like the Dinner party style games, all of which have been used to good effect with fundraisers, but for ease and simplicity, it’s the skit and clue script games that we suggest.
These cost £49.99 to download, or a printed set for £69.99 when you approach us for a fundraising discount.
Fete Accompli is also available to registered charity organisations free of charge – just contact us for details and access to that version.
Activities
Depending on the ages of the children involved in the groups, different murder mystery formats will suit different groups.
For teenagers like Explorers and Rangers – they often handle the standard dinner party games. These require good reading abilities and the ability to act in character. Teenagers enjoy these style of kits and can take part as the performers if you need to size them up to work with larger groups using the dinner party style scripts (Same game, different format to allow larger numbers).
We have a couple of mystery only kits that work with younger teens, and can construct kits to order for specific needs too.
For example, Mayday Mayday Murder was originally written for a scout group camp and included more than 20 characters, all male. It was adjusted after production for our more regular audiences. Mayhem at the Movies similarly was written to include nearly 40 children the first time around, and again was amended to a standard 12 player game for the website.
When it comes to younger players e.g. brownies, cubs, then you may find our children’s mystery kits are a better fit. Some of these are designed to be run in a hall. One game in particular “MI 4 3/4s the Party Palaver” is designed to be both educational and to work in halls with larger groups of children. Within this kit are 4 workstations which focus on fingerprints, footprints, decoding and crime scene analysis, as well as a series of more active game ideas on a spy theme to break up the work station time, and a final mystery to solve at the end. This was designed for the awkward 10-14 age range which falls between “kids party games” and “Adult mystery games”, and is ideal for Cubs and Brownies age range. With the benefit of being educational as well! It should work within 2 hours, but with the addition of extra games (ideas are always included in the children’s mystery kits for lots of other “bolt in” activities – then you can make one game last all day if you want to, so ideal for camps.
I am a Guide leader and have used 2 of your murder mysteries at Guide events. We did Fete Accompli at one long summer camp in guernsey in 2011 and it is regularly talked about (especially the over acting of some leaders) and the mayhem at the movies has been used for older girls at a Baden Powell Challenge Adventure residential. I LOVE your games. Jackie O’Sullivan
Spy camp box fillers
Many Guides and scout groups are now running spy camps or similar during the year and are looking for small “filler” toys to add to boxes. We can help there too. Many of our smaller CSI gifts are available to order wholesale and if you need 10-15 items we can often provide a bulk discount. We have access to CSI and children’s toy wholesalers and can often source “filler” items cheaper than smaller groups can e.g. water pistols, handcuffs. So just get in touch if you need to order something in bulk or are looking for ideas for CSI accessories to add into spy boxes as we can often help.
We can also supply evidence boxes empty and flat packed, which make for great spy camp boxes leaving you to fill them as you wish.
