Sat, Jul 18 2015 - AOC Annual Picnic 2015 - Van Pugh North Park on Beautiful Lake Lanier! (View Original Event Details) Trip Leader(s): Charlie Cottingham, John Stirman, Larry Cooper, Joyce T. Participants: Joyce T., John Stirman, Charlie Cottingham, Larry Cooper, Stephan, Eric, Clément Desaulniers, Davida, Stacey Johnson, Denise M, Cathleen, ANNA P, Alan, Brandon C., spal, Robin G., Jerry K, Cran, Gloria, Kevin, Rich A., Victor, Chris C, Chris Hansen, Marlene B., Ron S, Debbie A., Daniel, J Guthrie, Monica C, Kevin, Anne L, Tom Hall, Greg K, Joyce B., Tom Rybski, Trish, Gary S., Susie, Bob Bunner, Sharon, Maria T, Beth SJ, Dave R, Bob S, Jai S, John, Laura C, Dave S, Lizzie, Alan A, Bill K, Julie, Anusha, Denise C, Teri, Glenda, Lauren S, April, Zach A, Steve, Susan W

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Thanks to all of you who joined in the fun yesterday and made this, our Club's most festive outdoor event of the year such a success! A big pat on the back to our hard-working volunteers at the Picnic and esp. to Joyce Taaffe, John Stirman and Larry Cooper for doing such a bang-up job.  You made everyone feel so welcome and provided such delicious food & refreshments!  Congratulations to the dozens of you who enthusiastically participated in our annual picnic Games and walked away with lots of nice prizes!
  Among the memorable standouts in our games were Chris Chan who managed to "assassinate" not only his own godfather-assigned victim, but virtually everyone else in our watergun game! - also Ron Strilaeff (pictured supine below!) who was a winner in both the couples Balloon Busting competition and the Water Balloons toss for distance.

  We look forward to expanding this archive article and including links to colorful photos and videos from the Picnic.
  - Initial draft submitted by Charlie, Sun July 19th

Yes, indeed, the picnic was great fun!  I was impressed with how many new members showed up at the picnic, making it a wonderful opportunity to meet other members and form new friendships.  Charlie failed to mention how much effort he put into the games for the picnic.  He did a fantastic job with some very creative activities.  His new twist on the puzzle ice-breaker was a great way for people to meet each other throughout the entire picnic; the assassination game was a wonderful activity for cooling off throughout the picnic, especially when we started filling our water guns with ice water! After we conceded that Chris C. was the supreme assassin, we had great fun just shooting each other for fun, resulting in several of us getting completely soaked; the water-ballon toss was a very clever twist on the traditional egg throw;  the balloon-pop had everyone laughing as participants lost all inhibitions in getting the balloons popped;  and the tug of war had everyone cheering for both teams.  

To top off the afternoon, Charlie brought some wonderful prizes, including an expensive back-pack from Eddie Bauer, a hang-gliding coupon, a 4-person rafting trip; and many, many other prizes.  

Thank you, Charlie, for being such a generous, hard-working guy.

My thanks, too, to Larry C. (for shopping with me and hand-crafting the hamburgers, as well as arriving early to help set-up), John S. (for helping with the picnic planning, cooking, and cleaning), and the wonderful volunteers who helped with setting up, registration, games, and cleaning up.

It was a most successful event!   ~   Joyce T.

Photo albums on Facebook:

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