Indoor snowball fights help out of school students burn energy

QUINCY — What do you get when you mix around 20 kids on their school winter break, add in energy to burn and baseball-sized “snowballs,” and finish it off with a dash of creativity?

At the Quincy Recreation Department, an indoor snowball fight with the baseball-sized, foamy bean bags covered with a soft felt served as the faux-balls.

“This is an easy way on an afternoon to let kids run around,” said director Russ Harrington.

At the recreation center, Wednesday was the latest in a string of events “for everyone to do when the weather’s bad out.”

Harrington and coordinator Amanda Bogle said they want to encourage kids to be active, however possible. Soccer, paint nights, basketball camps, video game tournaments are a few of the events the rec center has held.

For adults, an indoor cornhole league will soon start up.

“Just a lot of different things,” Harrington said of the center’s offerings. “We’ve just got a lot of activities that we try to run.

Working at the center for a decade, the only constraint for Bogle and Harrington is imagination. After relying on various facilities around town for years, a dedicated rec center opened its doors around six years ago.

The former fitness center includes two floors and a 60-by-20-foot room that allows for ample space for activities.

“We were about to do whatever we wanted, then, within reason,” Harrington said. “We can do a lot of things in here.”

The goal for Wednesday’s free event was simple: burn some energy. It began with a free for all, with snowballs tossed with reckless abandon. From there, the group alternated between various iterations of dodgeball-type games.

“They’re slowing down,” Bogle said during a break after the kids had run around for roughly a half hour. “Success.”

“We know the parents love that, too,” Harrington said.

Harrington said for local recreation departments, a good idea is often shared far and wide, with nearby departments incorporating similar events into their repertoire.

“In recreation, we always joke that no one tries to invent anything new,” he said.