Going Out With a Splash!
The end of a school year is always one of the most anticipated times for students. Over the summer students can get together with their friends whenever they want, can go on family vacations, go to the beach, sleep in, eat as much ice cream as they can stomach and so much more. For this very reason, our Youth Group takes a break over the summer, but not before we have a celebration together…and that’s exactly what we did yesterday, Sunday, June 10th. For ice-cream franchises and more about it , you can get information from here!
16 of our students got together from 4:00-6:00 pm for games, food and that’s right…a DUNK TANK! And it was as awesome as it sounds. To determine who would be the first ones to get dunked, we split the group into two teams and had a series of “Minute to Wine It” games hosted by one of our church members, Julie Immelt-Whelden. The games are as follows:
1. Bible Book Order: students were required to put the 27 books of the New Testament in order as they appear in the Bible. This is an extremely difficult task for even the most scholarly of persons. They were able to put some in order, but were given clues and ultimately resorted to Google to complete the challenge.
2. Towel Scoot: this relay was probably the most physically demanding, where students had to sit on a towel, with their arms and legs on the town and scoot themselves across the floor. If you’re interested how challenging it is, try it at home!
3. Balloon Relay: This next game is where the creativity came out. Students had to transport a balloon about 20 feet and return in back to the line without letting it touch the ground or using your hands, arms or shoulders. It was so cool to see how different students got it from point A to B. Some bouncing it on their head, between their legs or cradled in their stomach. Hilarious for sure!
4. Hula Hoop Line: this relay is a very well known one, where students have to connect hands and get a hula hoop down the line of students. The fastest team to complete it, gets a point! Sometimes being short has its benefits!
5. Dixie Cup Stack: stacking cups is always fun, doing it super fast can have its challenged. Students had 5 cups that they had to stack in a pyramid then pass the cups to their teammate where they have to stack them. The slightest bump and they go crashing down. If you put too much space in between the cups it won’t work. Concentration and a stead hand work well for this challenge!
6. Suck it Up: Some say the tongue is the strongest muscle in the body, well you better hope the cheek bones are a close second because you’re gonna need it for this challenge! Students had to transfer M&Ms from one cup to another only using a straw! Hands were only allowed to touch the straw, so in addition to having to suck up the M&M, their placement of dropping the M&M had to be spot on. Super funny game fur sure!
7. Dice Stack: Our kids love to laugh…and we love that they love to laugh. However, this challenge would be extremely difficult to complete if you can’t be serious. Students were given a popsicle stick where they had to balance 4 dice on it, while it was in their mouth! If they fell, which happened to everyone (if not multiple times), they had to start over! We loved the technique and concentration of this game!
8. Cookie Face: Our last challenge of the day was one of the yummiest and kind of grossest challenges that we did. Students placed a chocolate chip cookie on their forehead and had to get it into their mouth without using their hands. If it falls…try again! The reward…you get to eat it! We strongly believe in the 5 second rule here.
Both teams performed very well, with ultimately the Purple Team winning! It was time to refuel with some very nutritious hamburgers, chicken nuggets and french fries from none other than…McDonald’s. Don’t judge, kids have fast metabolisms.
It was now time for the losing team to pony up and get dunked! Although it was a pretty warm and overcast day, the water was a frigid 55 degrees (this was not publicized to anyone though). The winning team got in a line, neon balls in hand and proceeded to hit the target. Some students went down on the first throw, others took rounds of throws for them to plummet into the water. Others unfortunately were taken down by students running up and hitting the target. Don’t worry, the culprit reaped what she sowed!
After all the students got dunked, it was time for the roles to reverse and students got the opportunity to dunk their Youth Leader (me)! Every student, adult, visitor, walker by-er (just kidding, maybe not that many people) got the opportunity to try and dunk me. That’s over 20 people! I have no idea how many times I was dunked, but it was at least 6 times…including the very first throw that was thrown!
Every kid and adult that participated in our end-of-the-year celebration had an awesome time! I have never seen so many smiles, heard so many laughs and witnessed so much enthusiasm. I am so glad that we have environments here at our church that promote good, clean fun where one another enjoys each others company and gets along. We hope everyone had an awesome summer and we’ll see you in the Fall (or at any of our summer gatherings)!
To view all the photos from the day, click here!
A very special thank you to Julie Immelt-Whelden (and 2 year old son Wesley), Tim Cline and Tim Leonard for leading, helping and volunteering for this awesome event! We hope you had as much fun as we did!
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones. (Proverbs 17:22)
