Things to Do in Carney

Not many events can combine puzzles, obstacle races, and charitable giving-all while filling the downtown area with people in gorilla suits. Gorilla Challenge accomplishes all of these things in a single afternoon. With annual events held across the country, it is quickly becoming the premier event for raising fun and social responsibility. Several of the event's clues are designed to bring awareness to topics such as literacy, poverty, environmental concerns, animal welfare, and elder care. Amid these consciousness-raising events, the company's gorilla-suit-clad staffers make surprise appearances to award participants prizes and collect bribes in the form of fresh bananas or sign-language-speaking kittens.

Most camp counselors can teach children how to tie-dye a t-shirt or braid a friendship bracelet. Very few, however, have experienced the exhilaration of vaulting into the end zone for a goal-line touchdown or intercepting a game-winning pass in front of thousands of rabid football fans. Across the country, Sports International Football Camps grant participants the opportunity to learn firsthand from professional athletes, whose gridiron battle scars have been forged by bell-ringing collisions with fearless opponents and reckless mascots on motorcycles.

Since 1983, the organization has partnered with veteran high-school coaches and pros, such as three-time Pro Bowl running back Priest Holmes, All-Pro linebacker Brian Cushing, and Super Bowl champion–cornerback Terrell Thomas. In those years, the camp has schooled some 91,000 alumni, including current NFL quarterback Byron Leftwich. Coaches break campers into groups by age, position, and ability and run practices that are competitive yet fun and supportive. For in-depth focus on the specific techniques of skill-position players, the camp also offers special academies for passing and receiving as well as kicking, punting, long snapping, and cooler lifting for Gatorade victory showers.

Situated on a humble Hampstead farm, Happy on Hooves manufactures smiles while reintroducing guests to nature atop the gracious strides of its equine tenants. The horses, named Sadie, Marco, and Kat, among others, are the driving forces behind a variety of adventures, including trail rides and all-inclusive picnics set among the farm's stunning scenery. The good vibes that accompany every visit to the farm begin with the facility's newly built barn, outfitted with white pillars, brick walls, and open stalls, from which the ponies poke their heads and debate the American-ness of putting ketchup on barley. When they're not in their stalls or on trail rides, Happy on Hooves' horses are leading lessons that teach basic riding techniques.

While other children were playing outside Charlene Randolph's bedroom window, she was buried in her coloring books, scribbling intently with her crayons. This passion for two-dimensional art led her to take a slew of illustration classes in high school, but it wasn't until college that she discovered the clay medium and the world of functional, three-dimensional art. Tossing her canvases and drawing pencils to the side, Charlene became the primary instructor at The ClayGround Studio & Gallery, a BYOB workshop that provides novice potters with all the tools, materials, and fire-breathing abilities needed to craft stoneware art. Charlene's own masterpieces are available for purchase through the studio's website or at various boutiques and galleries across the country.