Snipe Hunting and Other Pranks

I have never liked pranks or "practical" jokes.  Most of the time they are just not funny to me, and someone always ends up getting hurt it seems.  I played a practical joke once on my roommate, and although it worked beautifully I never really felt good about it.  It just seemed really selfish to enjoy myself at someone else's expense.  I know one time in Brazil,  I stopped a girl from putting toothpaste in someone's sleeping bag.  I was considered a party pooper, but what was she supposed to sleep in for the rest of the time?  Now many years later, I dislike them as much as ever, and I was concerned heading up to girl's camp.

The big thing to do with the first year campers, is take them on a snipe hunt.  Not too much harm done, I suppose, but the other leaders and I were still dragging our feet on it.  It was the last night of camp, and we had two first years come back from the bathroom convinced that they had seen a snipe on the way back to camp.  They were so serious, that I could not completely suppress my laughter.  The older girl's insisted at this point that they had to take them on the hunt, and we finally relented.  So they all got decked out in toothpaste (toothpaste on your face aids in snipe hunting), and went on the hunt.  I mentioned to one of the older girl's to watch out for any girls who might be taking this too seriously, because the last thing I wanted was for anyone to get hurt.  For the most part they all came back laughing, and thinking it was great fun. They even decided that toothpaste makes your skin extra soft.  I still don't love pranks, or snipe hunting, but I realized that it is part of the growing up process.  I had a first year camper up there, and although my first instinct was to protect her at all costs, I realized that she is tougher than I think. After all this snipe hunting the older girls included all the first years in their late night talks and story telling, making them all feel like they belonged.  I will never be an advocate of pranks, but maybe it isn't the worst thing that could happen.