5th & 6th Grade Pre-Game Party 2019
We had a BLAST on October 18th at our Pre-Game party for 5th and 5th graders!
We started things out with a few large group games. When a mountain of hotdogs that the Booster Club cooked up for us arrived we sent kids through the line for dinner. We served them hotdogs, chips, snack cakes, and their choice of caffeine free pop or water. The photo booth was set up for them to snap some photos, too!
For such a high energy group we knew we’d need some high energy games! We ordered dodge balls that are “regulation”, which apparently means they are supposed to throw better and sting less. They seemed to have a lot of fun playing! Kids were also welcome to choose not to play and just hang out with friends and chat. But most everyone played or laughed on the sidelines.
We had hoped to end the night with a super fun dance off, and the kids were amped for it! Our blue tooth speaker, which had been working just fine at the start of our night, malfunctioned and we had to finish with the basketball game knock-out instead. We were pretty bummed out about the music, we had some kids READY to dance! A better system and microphone are on our future shopping list. We need to be able to amplify our voices above such excited kids!
We also took a short moment to remind kids why we do what we do. We reminded them that we care about them, that they matter, and that God cares about them. God loves us lavishly, unconditionally, and asks us to love others the same way. Which is what we intend to do!
We want to the thank the Pleasantville Trojans Booster Club for helping us order the hotdogs and buns, and also for cooking them up for us. We were so thankful, and the kids loved devouring them. A huge thank you also to all of our volunteers and to those who donated money and pop to help with the event.
If you would like to donate to help us host more events for Pleasantville youth, click on the button below!
Middle School Dance Night 2019
On September 27th, 2019, 7th and 8th graders in Pleasantville danced the night away at the Memorial Hall. We had almost 80 youth attend this high energy event.
We supplied heaps of hostess snacks, every Mountain Dew flavor known to man, and of course water and bananas. We love the reaction we get when kids come to the snack table with their little velcro wallets or lanyard money clips. They shyly ask us how much an oatmeal cream pie and a Dr. Pepper is. When we happily tell them, “its free!”, they don’t believe us at first! Their eyes light up as they yell “Thank you!”. We just love that!
The feedback we received from the kids was overwhelmingly great. They loved the music selection. Cass went out of his way to find songs kids requested, even searching out the censored versions of certain requested songs to make sure the music we played was appropriate.
We had many opportunities to get to know the kids who attended. We made sure we told them how much we cared about them, and how much we believe they matter. We reminded them that God loves them, and cares for them too.
We also gave away a 1lb container of FLARP!, which for those who don’t know, is basically a fart noise maker and middle school kids lose their minds over it. Tommy Booth was the lucky winner!
We had a fantastic night and we are looking forward to getting to know these wonderful kids more and more!
Thank you to our volunteers: Eric Goodale, Chelsea Bender, Autumn Fennewald, Michael and Jennie Koenig, Mike and Emily Caulkins, and Chad and Stacy Rowson. Thank you to the City of Pleasantville for the use of the Memorial Hall. Thank you to Cass Lester for his DJ services. Thanks Pleasantville Schools for helping us spread the word.
Giant Angry Birds Game
What do water balloons, stacks of boxes, and 500ft sling shots get you? GIANT ANGRY BIRDS GAME! And we had FUN! The youth chose to split up in boys vs girls teams and battle it out by launching water balloons at each other’s box towers, trying to knock them down and pop huge water balloons hidden inside them. It was a ton of fun. Everyone got a bottle of water and an icecream bar in between games. When we were finished, everyone worked together to pick up every single water balloon piece in the grass. What an awesome group of kids!
And of course, it ended with a pretty epic water balloon fight!
Flag Football and More
On July 10, 2019 Pleasantville Youth Initiative hosted a flag football game/hangout at the park in town. Youth had a blast playing flag football and extreme paper rock scissors!
We ended the event by making sure these awesome kids knew how much we cared about them. We reminded that they mattered to us, and to God. We had a lot of laughs, and everyone wanted to stay longer!
4th of July Parade 2019
Did you think you saw Ben Franklin and George Washington dancing on a float in the 4th of July Parade? It wasn’t the heat…you actually saw that. It was us. And yes, we almost passed out from heat exhaustion but hey, we had FUN! Our great big float read “WE WANT YOU TO BE AWESOME”, and we DO! We loved being our silly selves and passing out a gazillion fidget spinners to the kids in town. Let FREEDOM ring!
Bet you never thought you’d see old George and Ben shakin it to “Firework”, did ya?
500 May Baskets
To celebrate MAY DAY we came together to make over 500 May Baskets!
Youth and volunteers punched holes in paper cups and used pipe cleaners to make a handle. We added popcorn, M&Ms, and some suckers in assembly line fashion. Students wrote encouraging messages on each basket.
Early on May first we delivered these to every student in the entire elementary school! We also left a shiny new pencil for each student as well. The kids were so surprised to get a special May Day gift!
We hope kids at Pleasantville Elementary School felt loved and appreciated!
Be YOU Middle School Events
On April 12th, 2019, two events were held simultaneously. One was for middle school girls, the other for middle school boys. At each event, youth were encouraged to shine uniquely as God has created them. We talked about practical ways to apply this to our lives, and leaders shared how God has taught them to value themselves through life experiences.
We also handed out the following printout to the girls group. You can read more about what we taught in this blog post!
