It started out with a donated "dunk tank" from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans in exchange for a booth at the rally.
With what we thought would be a partial donation from them, Elizabeth and I approached the Men's Group to ask for the remaining balance.
After all, she had already agreed to have a booth set up for Relay For Life; our church enters a team every October (for more info visit www.acsevents.org/relay/ca/simivalley/larabaas).
However, since we rented the dunk tank from one of the youth members, the cost was way down, and the Men's Group contribution ended up covering food costs.
In addition, the Women's Group agreed to host a "Cake Walk" in exchange for a booth displaying their wares...yumm, free trade coffee and chocolate--delicious and socially aware!
Sharing the Men's Group table was Altar Guild, the silent but important women who set the Lord's Table each week and keep the Sanctuary looking beautiful...we REALLY need a few more angels to help us out next year...there aren't a lot of thank yous, but the work is very gratifying.
With all this support, we couldn't help but make this a huge success. At $5 a person, $20 a family for lunch, our guests got a hamburger/hot dog fresh off the grill, a bag of chips and a drink. Tickets for entertainment were cheap, and offered a choice of Face Painting,
T-shirt Tye-Dyeing, a chance to dunk the Good Shepherd Lutheran School Principal, our Youth Director, Elizabeth, or our Pastor, Gary, in the dunk tank,
Fishing For Candy, or Turkey Bowling (knocking over 2 liter soda bottles filled with sand with, you guessed it, a turkey). Candy, our church secretary, provided a "slushee machine."
We honestly hoped to just break even on the event, and ended up raising a ton of money! Thanks to everyone who made our day such a success!
The following week our High School Youth Group, LIGHT (Living In God's Holy Truth), had their inaugural Girl's Only event. As the group has been growing (yay, God), the opportunities to celebrate small groups have been dwindling. Breakout groups such as Girl's Night and Senior's Group will be a great chance for specific youth to gather to discuss specific needs. Anyway, back to GIRL'S NIGHT!!!
After the weekly meeting of LIGHT, the girl's gathered in Eichele Hall with the Women's Group for some sisterly devotions and Brownie Sundaes :) Then we packed them into our cars and surprised them with a slumber party at Elizabeth's house! And they thought we were going to sleep on the floors of the drafty youth room--no way! We made aluminum foil crowns for ourselves, because, after all, we are all princesses. Our Father is the King of Kings!
Next the girls cut up magazines for pictures that reflected both how they see themselves and how they think the world sees them. We had an interesting discussion about it after...great girl talk :) oh, and fabulous treats!
The next morning (no school, Rosh Hashanah) we woke up to egg hot dish, coffee cake and fresh fruit. Then it was back home to real life, but with a few stronger friendships close to our hearts.
