2021 was another year of Covid. Another year of restrictions. Another year of quiet.
However, …
Youth and the kid’s groups still met in the building, and they were still having snacks, but everything had to be individually wrapped. So much paper/plastic and to-go containers. Every snack took twice as long to prepare simply because of the extra packaging.
Easter had an outside egg hunt for the community and snacks were given but all had to be wrapped up to take home. I made Bunny Bait so the kids could attract the Easter bunny at home. (hee hee)
Alpha also met and had their day away at the church. Participants had a completely self-enclosed snack and lunch to avoid anyone getting up and social distancing as they ate.
The Youth graduation was an online affair, but each grad family was gifted a small variety tray of snacks that they could enjoy as they watched from home.
In the summer, Day camp was kitchen-themed, and each child spent time in the kitchen in a small group cooking lesson. We made bagels, apple tortilla pie, smores popcorn, whoopie pies and grilled cheese sandwiches with sun-dried tomato pesto. 😊 The kids really enjoyed the time in the kitchen and the variety of other games and activities.
Prepping cookies for our wonderful volunteers!
Over the summer, to acknowledge our awesome volunteers, staff made over 3000 pumpkin cookies which were packaged in groups of 12 to over 250 volunteers. This was a huge labor of love, and all the staff took turns hand delivering these bags to our volunteers across the city (and even beyond.)
Kick-off this year was planned as a chili cook-off. However, due to illness, it had to be revamped as a smaller event. A hotdog and donut food truck were brought in, and the different ministries set up tables around the gym to highlight what was going in and how to get involved.
The Christmas season was once again kicked off with a Handmade Market. Proceeds were given to the Jesus Project and the kitchen helped by hosting a homemade donut day and cookie trays were added to the market as a support.
Journey to Bethlehem – A new event was added to our Christmas lineup instead of the Hayrides and Hotdogs. This was an interactive event where each participant was escorted by Joseph through the Christmas story. It ended with an escape to Egypt where the participants were given a lunch for their journey of hotdogs, cookies and hot chocolate and a hayride with a horse drawn cart. We had many volunteers involved. Hopefully, a new annual tradition!
-Karen Schlamp
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