Washingtonian, August 2002

Annie, Get a Gun

By Deborah Knuckey

PAY DIRT. AT A DAY OF PAINTBALL, RUN by the DC Society of Young Professionals . . .

It is a cool Sunday morning in the Virginia foothills, and about 40 people have paid $50 to be here. Men--a surprising number in camouflage gear--break the ice as they compare war stories from past battles. The atmosphere is more relaxed and inclusive than at any other event I have been to, despite--or perhaps because of--the lack of nametags or introductions.

Separated into two large teams, everyone is quick to mingle and meet, plotting paintball attacks on the other team.

A series of morning battles begins--in forested fields scattered with wooden forts and bunkers--and leaders emerge. During one battle, I suggest, "Let's take them by surprise by charging as a group straight up the middle. They'll be too spread out to get us all before we get the flag." I'm one of the first to be taken out by an explosion of orange paint. The rest of the team goes down like flies. I cross "military strategist" off my list of dream jobs.

As a slow moving target, I get hit often, and hit on. Charging breathlessly up the side of the battlefield with an ex-soldier, he says, "I just wanted to get you alone." A paintball catches me in the calf, and I welcome my timely demise.

DCSYP has a 25,000-person e-mail list and runs activities ranging from purely social to very physical. DCSYP e-mails lists of events and offers online registration. If an event is distant, carpools or buses may be organized.

Not everyone is single, and DCSYP founders Michael Karlan and Greg Bland--lawyers by day, socializers by night--say many feel more comfortable coming to events without the "single" label. According to Karlan and Bland, two-thirds of those at their profile dinners, where tables of singles are matched by interests, say they enjoy outdoor activities.

"People are trying to be more active and will do bolder things than they used to," says Karlan. The recipe seems successful. "I tried to count the marriages, but I ran out of fingers and toes."

AT LUNCH, WE PAINTBALLERS CHAT over hot dogs and chips. A group of singles concludes that the odds of meeting a mate are best at events stereotypically of interest to the opposite sex. The men's eyebrows raise when I mention DCSYP's evening at Cloudstreet, a play at the Kennedy Center, that had one man to more than a dozen women. Yet they're quick to say they would not attend something they had little interest in--"You know, like ballet," one says-- for the sake of meeting women.

The imbalance of the events I attended is rare, Bland says. "Our events are so large, that they tend to even out. Women RSVP earlier than men, but it evens out by the day of the event." The only social engineering occurs in the few specifically singles events, where the numbers are kept even.

After lunch, we grab our gear and trudge up the hill. The Venus/Mars differences fade as we all become cloaked in leaves and splatters of paint. Women glory in their hits. Men pool resources to share the remaining paintballs. Everyone is happy and high on a day of hard play, hoping that at least one welt is in a place suitable for showing to colleagues the next day.

Despite his camo gear, I spot an attractive redhead on the other side of a thicket. He's tall, charming, and, I hope, single. I take aim. Perhaps Cupid uses a paintball gun.

DC Society of Young Professionals, www.dcyoungpro.com. More than 25,000 members; about 70 percent are single. Hosts 10 to 20 events per month--some draw more than 1,000 people--ranging from orienteering to a big New Year's Eve bash. No membership fee.