The war has ended.

A week-long Nerf War involving 260 high school students came to a close Sunday night, with the Nerf Busters — along with the food pantry at the Huntington Church of the Nazarene — emerging as the victors.

And the spoils for the Nerf Busters?

“Just bragging rights,” says Nerf War co-organizer Jack Doughty.

The church, though, came away with 2,060 donated items to help stock its food pantry.

Nerf Wars — fought among students armed with plastic guns that fire foam darts — have broken out among Huntington North High School students on a semi-regular basis for several years. It’s not an HNHS-sponsored activity, but this year’s wars were organized by Doughty, an HNHS senior, and his neighbor, Kenny Butler, a teacher at Huntington North.

“I participated in a game once my freshman year,” Doughty says. “I decided I wanted to do it again before I graduate.”

He and Butler came up with some rules for the previously-unstructured game. They set off the first war, which lasted two weeks, in November.

“People really liked it and wanted to do it again,” Butler says.

The duo tweaked the rules and brought back a one-week war the week of April 17; 260 people signed up and were divided into 32 teams of up to eight people each. The 10 teams with the most kills during the week faced off in the finals the weekend of April 23 and 24.

The team with the most kills when the game ended Sunday night reigns as champion.

For the record, the champion Nerf Busters team was made up of Konner Morris, Alec Bolding, Katie Hunt, Gage Bustos, Cade Reust, Austin Teusch, Logan Hardacre and Nolan McCullough.

The premise of the game is simple: Rack up as many kills as possible by hitting members of other teams with Nerf darts. Huntington North, church and the workplace are out of bounds, but kills can be made anywhere else — even if it’s not in Huntington County.

Anyone who’s hit is dead for 24 hours, but there is a way out.

“I was talking to my wife and I said, ‘I wonder if we could accept donations and have them get a life back,’” Butler says.

The rule sounded good, so it was incorporated into the game.

“You could donate 10 items and get a perk in the game,” he says. “An extra life, a protection badge.”

Those donated items, destined for the Nazarene food pantry, included food, diapers, toiletry items and more.

The food pantry at the church serves between 100 and 150 Huntington County families per month. It’s open on the fourth Monday of each month from noon to 4:30 p.m. Entry to the pantry is through Door 10 of the church.