@Sleepingfish , I was thinking of you and your child. I recall when my son was at school that on some Friday evenings in the spring, there would be these huge games of capture the flag or manhunt, probably inspired by similar summer camp activities. They were extremely popular and would involve hundreds of students . They were student-conceived and student-organized, and they were not spur of the moment things (although there were those too from time to time, too!.)
Perhaps your son and his school friends could approach the administration to organize whatever appealed to them. It could be big like that, or it could be a board games evening. They may not feel comfortable doing it now, but they might next year. None of these ideas require money, just permission. Just saying that your kid, not you, could drive this if he and his school friends wanted to make a go of it.
And yes yes yes to covid having impacted social life. It’s hard for kids to get readjusted to being in person and they can’t simply recover to where they would have been “pre-pandemic normal” after having had such an extended gap. At the same time, school communities didn’t just pick up where they left off either. Everyone continues to find their way.