Jacobs juniors create summer fun for neighborhood kids with mini-carnival

Bored with staying home, a couple of Jacobs High School juniors found a way to liven up a hot summer day -- and entertain some kids in the neighborhood.

Last Friday, July 24, Cameron Lindahl Behrendt and Olivia Orth, both 16, transformed Orth's yard in the Big Sky neighborhood of Lake in the Hills into a mini-carnival, complete with games and prizes.

The games included Skee-Ball, Feed Me Fish, car racing, Bozo's buckets, pong toss, knock 'em down, boat march, a Nerf gun gallery, tree "I Spy," knock over Rody, basket shot, ladder toss and coin in the cup. Social distancing was observed at the carnival and hand sanitizer was used.

According to Olivia's mother Karen Orth, all of the games were handmade and assembled by the teens with no help from their parents. Karen Orth said they saved up cardboard boxes and found items at local discount stores to create the games. Around 15 children attended, according to Orth, and participants got to select a prize from the prize box after playing. Posters and word of mouth led children to the free carnival.

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Asked what prompted them to put together a carnival, Cameron said, "We were bored during quarantine and knew that other kids were probably bored too, so we decided to make something fun that the kids and families in our neighborhood would enjoy doing."

Neither of the teens had done anything like this before, according to Karen Orth.

The fun only lasted one day, but "they might set it up again, since everyone really enjoyed it," Karen Orth said.