30 teams compete against the British at the fair and Water Carnival.
Your mission is to get the British to surrender the booty. The Biggest Booty wins!
There could be hundreds or thousands of people on your team spread out across Georgia on land and water. Your team is on 16 volunteer missions to plunder booty. These missions are called “Treasure Hunts.” You can win and plunder a lot of different types of British booty, but there is one treasure more valuable than all the rest. On Christmas day, 1776, at the Battle of Trenton, George Washington found that treasure and used it to defeat the British and plunder their booty.
From 7 am to 7 pm, on July 4, you will be able to see 1,776 people who have trained, planned and rehearsed to find the most valuable treasure called the “American Spirit!” We invite you to be be one of them by planning and rehearsing with us for a few hours, right now, to be ready for the Water Carnival. The water carnival produces what you see on the Jumbotron, TV or your phone. 1776 people will be featured celebrating the American Spirit for 12 seconds each. You need a small amount of training and rehearsing to know if your 12 seconds will be live or a produced video. This honor goes to the first 1776 people who upload their 12 second “back up” video in case they miss their live spot on July 4.
While everyone plunders British Booty at the fair, they can watch the live broadcast of 1776 volunteers showing their American Spirit! This is interactive video that lets you visit the booth each of the 1776 volunteers.
To score booty at the fair, you compete with a pirate coin called a “Loony” (Dubloon). You can see your loony booty at the top right of your phone or computer screen. The booty you score is on a public ledger and everyone can look at your booty! Some people and businesses have treasure you can find with “Loony Coupons.” These are very special 250th birthday discounts only given to volunteers who celebrate the American Spirit!
It is free for any person to create “Loony Coupons” and a booth at the fair to recycle their loony booty.
You don’t use cash or credit cards at your booth you trade your loony booty! Your booth starts by being online, then place it anywhere in public that is permissible or just keep it online. A campsite, a park, a boat, in your car, your back yard, your HOA clubhouse, your church parking lot or any permissible location. Your booth represents the American Spirit you are bringing to the party. It can be fun, food, education, performance, art, music or anything you want.
The Grand Prize Winner is “President For A Day.”
What is the “Crossing The Delaware” water carnival?
There are 30 teams and 30 boats at the water carnival. One boat for each team. There are 60 people that represent the hundreds or thousands on each team. When you visit a boat online, you see the mascot for that team and a few team members. You also see a link to the booth each of those 60 team members have. Every booth competes to plunder British Booty! Those 60 team members and booths represent your team. These are the booths you should visit at the fair. You are accused of mutiny if you visit another teams booth! You are all working together to get a higher score for your team.
After the 10 lowest scoring teams are eliminated, 5 teams will be in the playoffs and 1 team will win the Grand Prize. 1 person from the winning team of 60 will win “President For A Day.”
On July 4, we raise the flag and open with Reveille at Sunrise. At 7 am a live broadcast will feature each team member for 12 seconds. The broadcast will finish at 1 pm. It will play again and finish the second time at 7 pm. At the lowering of the flag before sunset we play Retreat.
When you register you are randomly placed on one of the 30 teams. If you are one of the first 60 people on your team to qualify by having your back up video completed, you can be featured in the 1776 video and be eligible for the Grand Prize.
To win prizes at the fair you have to be 18+. Your online registration is $1. You get a personalized QR code for an ID card. This QR code lets you complete 3 specific challenges to win cash and prizes and a fourth amazing challenge!
The general public (Called “Landlubbers.”) is anyone doesn’t know how to “Get Loony.” Landlubbers haven’t taken the time to know how to volunteer, so they have to donate to get “Loony.” For every 25 cents they donate, they get 1 loony. They also get a donation receipt for taxes each time they “Get Loony!” There is a secret password you can use to find out if they are British or if they are volunteers with the “American Spirit!.” Volunteers, depending on their spirit, may trade about a minute of time for 1 Loony, instead of donating 25 cents to get one. Volunteers can recycle loonies for any price, maybe 10 or 15 cents a loony to “recycle their loony booty for cash!” Volunteers get cash, landlubbers save money on their treasure hunt.
The General Public and volunteers can switch places back and forth at anytime. Volunteers need about an hour of “Pirate School” to be effective.
Each team has three groups of people. The administration, the general public and the people that create fun. The administration are called “Sailors.” The general public are called “Landlubbers.” The people that create fun are called “Pirates.”
You are also called a “Pirate” when you win a prize, contest or game. If you lose you are called “British.” You don’t know if you are a pirate or the British until after the contest ends. You only know who plundered the booty and who surrendered the booty. The biggest booty wins!
The theme of the Great American State Fair and Water Carnival
The City Center of Cumming will become Philadelphia Pennsylvania and Lake Lanier will become the Delaware River in 1776. The Cumming City Center is the Continental Army. Lake Lanier is George Washington’s Marines. When you volunteer or donate you move up in rank from Private to General as a soldier or as a marine.
Besides a mascot, each team has a Special Hero. Each team produces a 30 minute youtube video about their hero. This can be improv or carefully crafted. This 30 episode series is called “Special Heroes.”
All proceeds can be seen on a public ledger. This helps Special Needs populations at a Forsyth County Vocational Group Home under construction.
Instructional Video: Short OR Long Or Mission
Here is what to know about the American Spirit.
The American Spirit was created on Christmas Day 1776. Three groups of soldiers were to cross the Delaware River and battle the British. Colonel Cadwalader with his 1800 men and James Ewings with his 800 men turned back due to a ferocious winter storm. It took George Washington 11 hours to cross the 300 yards of the River with 2,400 volunteers using fishing boats, hunting weapons and farm tools to battle a well trained, well equipped British army dug into the city of Trenton.
As the patriots got closer to the British, instead of a surprise attack, front and center unarmed musicians marched into battle playing the fife and drum to call out the British to fight. All of George Washington’s men were singing “Yankee Doodle Dandy” and even dancing as they advanced into battle.
The British were shocked, surprised, demoralized and fought poorly. The patriots were energized, fought courageously and won. That is how the American Spirit was used as a weapon to defeat the British.
To this day, “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” is the number one song played in fife and drum competitions. The story of the American spirit spread to other patriots and we won our independence. It has continued to this day and USA soldiers are known for their American Fighting Spirit.
The Star Spangled Banner was written by John Frances Key in 1813. Before that “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” a song that mocked the British was our unofficial national anthem.
If you are on a volunterr mission called a “Treasure Hunt,” to prove you are not a British spy, you can be asked to sing the first line of Yankee Doodle Dandy. If you don’t sing and dance heartily, (Or sing more than the first line!) you are a British spy! You could be given a “Booby Prize,” keel hauled or walk the plank.
The place where Yankee Doodle Dandy was sung the most often and with the greatest cheer and spirit was at the Tun Tavern. This was at Water Street and Tun Alley across the street from “Washingtons Wharf” on the Delaware River.
George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, John Paul Jones and many other founding fathers were at Independence Hall during the day and at the Tun Tavern in the evenings. During the day they crafted the declaration of independence and the constitution, during the evenings they drank beer and recruited volunteer Marines at the Tun Tavern. Yankee Doodle Dandy, sung to mock the British, was the most popular song at the Tun Tavern. Everybody sang it loudly with all the Spirit they had. The Marines raised their flag for the first time at the Tun Tavern. The Marine Slogan is “Born in a bar.”
