OK, this is going to be one of the stranger questions ever asked here, since it's about real life instead of research, but given you all could treat it as a research question for a story (not to mention it has to do with books 
), I thought I'd put this out here and see what kind of response I get.
I'm spending my summer working in a summer camp (if you all noticed I haven't posted much, well, any work lately, it's because I've been insanely busy here). I've worked here for a few summers and last time I was here, I created a Jewish library for the camp (It's a Jewish camp for unaffiliated Jewish kids, though we have a handful of non-Jewish kids as well).
I worked my butt off to create the place and unfortunately, the kids are not super excited about reading any books and the books I worked so hard to collect for them are largely gathering dust. I decided I wanted to run a contest for the kids where for every book they borrow and read (their counselors will have to sign that they read it) they get an entry form for the contest and the winner will get a $50 gift certificate to Amazon.com. The response was shall we say. . .underwhelming. None of the kids seem to care (I was shocked -- they all were like, yeah, big deal. . .).
So I figured, why not up the ante? Like I said, I killed myself to make this place happen and I want it used, so I'm willing to offer a few hundred dollars if that's what it takes to make the kids start reading the books (yeah, I know, I'm a bit crazy, but when my book becomes a best seller (I can dream, can't I?
) I won't be called a bit crazy. I'll be a bit eccentric ).
Now here's my problem. I suggested to the director that I could offer a Nintendo Wii, but he doesn't want me to offer something electronic, where the kids will sit in front of a screen. He doesn't mind my offering a substantial prize and my personal budget is in the same range as that particular item, so any ideas of what a 13-15 y.o. boy or girl (we're co-ed) might be interested in that isn't electronic in the $200-$300 range (and I've considered offering a gift card in that amount, but frankly, that just feels too desperate. I want a prize that'll make the kids go "wow, that's so cool," not "OK, now it's worthwhile already.").
Treat it as a research question. If you have kids, ask them what they would think is cool (they'll probably be asking why they don't have staff in their camps who are crazy enough to offer something like this -- unless of course, they're in my camp, in which case they do. ).
Thanks for any and all ideas.
Eric
), I thought I'd put this out here and see what kind of response I get.I'm spending my summer working in a summer camp (if you all noticed I haven't posted much, well, any work lately, it's because I've been insanely busy here). I've worked here for a few summers and last time I was here, I created a Jewish library for the camp (It's a Jewish camp for unaffiliated Jewish kids, though we have a handful of non-Jewish kids as well).
I worked my butt off to create the place and unfortunately, the kids are not super excited about reading any books and the books I worked so hard to collect for them are largely gathering dust. I decided I wanted to run a contest for the kids where for every book they borrow and read (their counselors will have to sign that they read it) they get an entry form for the contest and the winner will get a $50 gift certificate to Amazon.com. The response was shall we say. . .underwhelming. None of the kids seem to care (I was shocked -- they all were like, yeah, big deal. . .).
So I figured, why not up the ante? Like I said, I killed myself to make this place happen and I want it used, so I'm willing to offer a few hundred dollars if that's what it takes to make the kids start reading the books (yeah, I know, I'm a bit crazy, but when my book becomes a best seller (I can dream, can't I?
) I won't be called a bit crazy. I'll be a bit eccentric ).Now here's my problem. I suggested to the director that I could offer a Nintendo Wii, but he doesn't want me to offer something electronic, where the kids will sit in front of a screen. He doesn't mind my offering a substantial prize and my personal budget is in the same range as that particular item, so any ideas of what a 13-15 y.o. boy or girl (we're co-ed) might be interested in that isn't electronic in the $200-$300 range (and I've considered offering a gift card in that amount, but frankly, that just feels too desperate. I want a prize that'll make the kids go "wow, that's so cool," not "OK, now it's worthwhile already.").
Treat it as a research question. If you have kids, ask them what they would think is cool (they'll probably be asking why they don't have staff in their camps who are crazy enough to offer something like this
-- unless of course, they're in my camp, in which case they do. ).Thanks for any and all ideas.
Eric
