Seven-year-old Ahmed El Shahiny drove a heavily-armed race car to victory Wednesday, narrowly avoiding enemy gunfire and fiery obstacles at an unusual summer camp in Hilo.
El Shahiny, along with his 10-year-old brother, Mohamed, and about a dozen other keiki, is an attendee of the inaugural Summer Gaming Camp, a monthlong program for kids to socialize and learn how to play a variety of card, board and tabletop games.
Marsha Chose, who holds the camp at her Hilo gaming store, Gam3escape, said that, as a schoolteacher, she wanted to establish a gaming club for younger students.
“I wanted to give kids something to do that’s educational and fun over the summer,” Chose said, adding that she had started a club to play Dungeons &Dragons at a different Hilo gaming store, which has since closed down. “We started a youth D&D camp last year, but this is the first year for the gaming camp.”
For $20 a week — or $100 for all six weeks — keiki can run through a gamut of various games: trading card games on Mondays, board games on Tuesdays, tabletop games on Wednesdays, and other card games on Thursdays. Attendees are also given snacks and drinks throughout the day.
Gaslands, the tabletop driving game the El Shahiny brothers played on Wednesday, is a perennially popular activity, Chose said, because kids get to design, paint and race their own cars through custom-made physical racetracks laid out on a table.
But traditional games have their place, too: Chose said kids get excited for chess on board game days.
But Ahmed said his favorite activity was Pokemon bingo, for the simple reason that players can win Pokemon cards for playing.
“I like playing Pokemon with my friends,” said 5-year-old Three Smith. “I met new friends here, and everyone here is my friend.”
“They love coming here. They look forward to it each day,” said Laycie Tobosa, mother of Ahmed and Mohamed. “They’ve showed interest in these games before, so it’s been a good experience for them to learn these games with other kids.”
Because camp attendees younger than 13 must be accompanied by an adult, Chose said parents get to learn the games as well.
“It’s nice that we get this specific time, every week, to do things together,” Tobosa said. “And it gives them something to do over the summer.”
While the games are fun for kids and adults, Chose said she makes sure to teach the children lessons throughout the camp.
“It teaches things like good sportsmanship,” Chose said. “Like when we do Pokemon, the kids are all congratulating each other and saying ‘good job,’ win or lose.”
Chose said she intends to hold the camp in future years, although she added that it might be a problem if it gets too popular.
“I don’t know if we can do more than 20 kids,” Chose said. “That’s about as many as we can support right now.”
But for now, the camp seems to be a hit.
Keiki on Wednesday cheered each other on as their bullet-riddled cars raced through a deadly canyon, and Mohamed gave the whole experience his highest possible rating: “100 out of 10.”
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
