Last night at youth group we met at church for our annual Christmas shopping for the Handicapped Development Center. This has been a long-time tradition of the youth group and it's a wonderful experience for our students to pool their money and buy gifts for people who really need our love and support.
We began the evening gathered in the church narthex so that we could make a quick getaway. because the narthex doesn't offer the same amount of comfort and welcome that our youth room does (there are not enough seats) we played a quick stand in a circle game as we began called railroad. It was effective at keeping everyone focused on the group while an adult leader gathered the stragglers for the first 10 minutes.
Then we broke into groups to go shopping. each group was given a shopping list for a resident. they worked together to think through gift ideas, then headed out in vehicles to the super target for some shopping.
Groups concluded by returning to St. Paul to wrap gifts, make cards and sing a few carols.
Things I loved about the event:
Having everyone go to the same store (a store with everything) was good for photos. St. Paul pitched in $20 for each group to help make sure the gifts could be great. Leaders were critical to making good decisions for the gifts, but the students creativity was inspiring. The small groups working together was sweet. The students generosity was inspiring. making Christmas cards out of construction paper was a good match. Extra Large gift bags were essential to keeping the gifts together.
Things to do better:
make sure the students share what they bought (i invited adults to share because we ran out of time). randomizing small groups - should have planned something better to get everyone on the same page before they left. leave more time for announcements and songs at the end. make sure to remind students that they are representatives of St. Paul when they are out and about.
No comments:
Post a Comment