Teens’ Event at Sector 7 Laser

We had a great time at Sector 7 Laser in Southampton on 16th  March 2013. Seventeen teenagers with cochlear implants attended, many travelling long distances to be there. It was lovely to see so many familiar faces and to welcome others who were new to the teens programme. Several of the teenagers were already familiar with laser quest but it was new to a few and certainly new to most of the USAIS staff.

Before we started the games there was a chance for everyone to get to know each other a bit and for the teenagers to be split into two teams. We were given instructions on what to do. It sounded complicated: the lights on the gun flashed and changed colour according to whether you had been ‘shot’ or if the gun needed re-charging, and once you had been shot the gun would not work for a while. Luckily, once we started to play it all seemed to make sense. We had a few minutes to run around to work out the layout of the arena but then the lights went off and it all went dark! The arena was dimly lit so that you could only just see your way around. Some teens hid in corners, others went in for the attack!

There was definitely some skill involved but it was good fun for novices and experienced players alike. We had a break in the middle and a chance to check the scores. Once the second game had finished and the winners were announced (well done Jarvis and Henry!) we took a well earned rest and had our lunch all together sitting at the tables. The food was hot and tasty and didn’t take long to demolish! It was great to see the teenagers chatting to each other – certainly some friendships blossomed that day.

The teenagers filled in some feedback sheets at the end of the event. Overall, I think everyone enjoyed it, here are a few of the comments that were made; ‘(I liked it) because it was awesome and fun’, ‘good new funny friends and fun game and I’m good so I had fun myself’ and ‘this was my first time and it was amazing’.