Two-part programme with older groups preparing items and younger ones participating as buyers.

We recommend organizing an auction of the absurd and creative as part of a main event or happening around the theme of Ben Gurion or Yom Ha'atzmaut. The advantage is that the group running the auction (you will need stage props) gets a chance to do much of the preparation through a Scavenger hunt. The overall aim is participation, fun, creativity...

Scavenger Hunts

Age: 12-18. Time: one hour

Preparation and materials:

Draw up a board with sixteen squares and mark a clue in each square (use clues below). Make a copy of the board (quarto size) for each team of about 6 people.

Procedure:

Divide group into teams. Each team has 30 minutes to prepare as many clues as possible. Be outrageously creative. If time is short, tell the team to come back as soon as they have marked a complete line of (4) clues, whether horizontal, vertical, or slanting. Points are awarded for originality, interest, even for returning first. Use a panel to judge.

Auction

Auction Age:

Time:

Preparation through scavenger hunt plus up to two hours extra. Running time 20-30 mins.

Preparation and materials:

EITHER take the best of the scavenger hunt exhibits and split your group to prepare the rest of the items, using equipment: tape from this kit, two tape recorders, microphone, art materials, photo albums (photocopy and colour in, laminate and back pictures, etc.).

OR You will need a real ham actor to act as auctioneer with gavel, table, stand for exhibits or demonstrators to take items round to the audience.

Procedure

Proceed as in an ordinary auction, explaining the method of bidding (warn people not to nod, shake their heads, wink, etc, unless intending to bid) and of payment. Make it fast and fun, tell jokes.

Sell for counters (Monopoly notes, etc.) or for real money if you want to raise funds.

Choose at least 16 of the clues, or make your own...

Examples of Clues for Scavenger Hunt / Auction

• Ben Gurion's hat
• Ben Gurion's cane
• Ben Gurion's tarbush from his life under Turkish rule
• Cast of Ben Gurion's footprint
• Picture of B.G. (mount it nicely on coloured background)
• Photo of Paula (mounted on background)
• B.G.'s memoirs (use a real copy, sign it and sell it for a fortune)
• Something B.G. brought to Israel from Poland
• A letter to Paula (real or imaginary)
• Handwritten notes for the Declaration of Independence (read some aloud)
• One of B.G.'s shouts (on tape) Part of a B.G. speech (on tape)
• A piece of the National Water Carrier
• A piece of the wall of his hut in Kibbutz Sde Boker
• B.G.'s symbol of office
• B.G.'s secret for winning arguments against his opponents
• What B.G. said to Begin when they made peace in 1970
• B.G.'s Knesset member's card
• A B.G. T-shirt
• A cactus from the Negev
• B.G.'s Greek dictionary (look at Jerusalem Post supplement for details)
• B.G.'s Sick Fund card (Kupat Holim)
• B.G.'s copy of Don Quixote (in Spanish original) - see Jerusalem Post supplement
• A handful of B.G.'s imitation rice (this is really pasta in rice shape. Israel couldn't afford to import rice in her early years and many of the new immigrants were used to rice as a staple of their daily diet, so he suggested substituting pasta in the same form and this is eaten everywhere in Israel to this day...)
• A page from B.G.'s passport showing stamps from all the countries he visited.