Frank Carter brings fun of GaGa Ball to Camp Arrowhead

When brainstorming ideas for an Eagle Scout project, Frank Carter thought back on fun summer days at Boy Scout camps across Delmarva. 

Whenever there was some time to kill, the Lewes native would get together with a dozen or so other scouts and head over to the GaGa Ball pit. GaGa Ball is a game similar to dodgeball. Players each start by touching the outside perimeter of the pit. The game begins when a ball is tossed in the air. When it hits the ground, all players yell “ga.” On the second bounce, they yell “ga” again, and the competition is underway. 

The goal is to be the last player left in the octagonal pit. Players may only strike the ball with an open hand or a fist. Anyone who is hit below the waist directly or by rebound off the pit wall is out of the game. 

Frank, now 16, has a lot of fond memories of playing GaGa Ball, and he wanted to bring the joy of the game to children at Camp Arrowhead, a co-ed residential summer camp on the Rehoboth Bay for grades 2-11 and a day camp for grades 2-5. 

Frank enlisted the help of fellow Troop 1 scouts Kurt Leinemann, Austin Ross and Lance White. He was also aided by licensed contractor Scott Gaston and engineer Stuart duPont. Collectively, he said, the crew put in about 72 hours.

A GaGa Ball pit is pretty standard, he said, so the group did not use plans when constructing the octagon, which was built over spring break last April along the northern edge of a recreational area near a climbing wall and open field. 

Frank, a sophomore at Worcester Prep in Berlin, Md., has been a member of the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts in Lewes, since about 5 years old. He admits he was a shy kid and credits the Scouts for bringing him out of his shell.

“Boy Scouts helped me be more extroverted,” he said. “It helped me learn to communicate with people and work with people I don’t know.”

Frank has participated in more than 120 camping trips and has been the senior patrol leader for Troop 1 for the past year. He participated in the National Jamboree last summer in West Virginia and will continue this summer by canoeing more than 50 miles in Northern Tier of Ontario, Canada. 

Though not set in stone, Frank has some lofty goals after Worcester Prep. He said he’s strongly considering entering the engineering field, and he is looking into MIT, Stanford, Yale and the Naval Academy as options to further his education. 

To learn more about Camp Arrowhead, go to www.camparrowhead.net.