Cup 'O Affirmation

One of the things we used to do on our Winter Retreats that really had a cool impact on the adults and the students was something we called...

Cup 'O Affirmation

What It Is:
Everyone is given a cup (big red plastic ones) to write their name on with pen. (Or a newer, modern - more expensive option would be an Etch-it cup.) This cup will be used to collect affirmations that others write about each person.

How It Works:
On the last night of Winter Retreat and into the next morning people are told to write something that they like/appreciate about each person, fold it up and go put it in their cup. They do this for all of the students and adults who are there. We usually do this with everyone sitting around the room and some music playing in the background. When you're all done each person ends up with a cup full of positive things about themselves to read.

Extra Advice:

• Make sure to give a lot of time for this. It takes a good amount of time even with a smaller sized group!
• Make sure to have enough cups, pens (to write and ones to write on cups), and paper (people can tear strips off binder or printer paper) so that you don't run out.
• The cool thing about doing it on a retreat is there's a different intimacy level that people have and feel for each other at the end of a good retreat that you just don't get from every day interactions.

The Impact:
It's hard to really get across how powerful this exercise is at the end of a retreat. The only thing I can compare it too is sitting around getting your yearbook signed by all your friends at school. But it's more than that. It really allows people to grow closer and edify each other like nothing else we ever did. The things that people write are so cool that many students (and ADULTS) keep the cups for a long time after wards!

I'd encourage you to try it on your Winter Retreat or any retreat! It's simple but powerful!

Ol' School Fundraiser To Help Your Students Raise Funds For Winter Retreat Or Any Event...

When I was youth pastoring we needed a way to help students come up with a significant amount of money in order for them to be able to afford going on Winter Retreat with us.

We thought of different fund raisers we could do and they all seemed good but none of them seemed to be able to raise the larger individual amounts we needed.

Until finally we came across ol' school fund raiser idea called...

"The Rock-A-Thon"

No, it's not the ancient practice of stoning people with a money raising twist.

No, it's not an i-Pod music marathon. :)

It's students rocking in rocking chairs to raise funds!

Before you click away, you might want to see how it worked and why the students loved doing it...(We even had students come to it who didn't even need to raise money. They came just to hang out!)

How It Works:

• Each student rocks in a rocking chair for 12 hours.
• They raise funds by getting people sponsoring them __ an hour.

Our Twist To Make It More Fun:

• We did it from 8pm-8am (or 9pm-9am) in the youth room.
• We had video game systems set up, watched movies, and had board games (Monopoly, Risk, etc.) set up.
• We had a ton of junk food, soda, pizza, etc. to keep them fueled and going.
• We had a 5-minute "bathroom break" once every hour to use the restroom and stand up and stretch.

How To Run It Effectively

Before the event:

• Plan in on a Friday night, so you can sleep and "recover" before Sunday!
• Get some adult leaders to help you that night. You need them to help hang with the students, help prep food & beverages, keep students awake, safe, etc.
  
• Design and print up little sponsor booklets.
  Have a place for the student's name, the supporters info (name, addres &/or phone #) and amount they are sponsoring them per hour. Have these choices: "$.50 an hour ($6)", "$1 an hour ($12)", "$2 an hour ($24)", "$3 an hour ($36)", "__ an hour" (allows people to fill in their own amount) and "____ for whole time" (allows people to commit just a flat amount). We made about 3-4 "strips" of these supporter pages per 8.5 X 11 paper. We also made a part at the end of the strip that they could tear off and give to the sponsor with their name and the amount they sponsored the student on it.
• Promote it in your church's bulletin. Get it announced from the pulpit too - if you can. Promote it at least a month or so in advance.
• What to promote - Tell people that you're looking for rocking chairs to borrow. (*Students are required to bring their own rocking chairs, but we always tried to help them find some.) Tell them students will be coming around on Sundays to look/ask for people to sponsor them.
  

During the event:

• You need to constantly yell, "Keep rocking" - especially at the beginning. As the night goes on the students will get used to it and do it more automatically.
• As it gets later you'll probably have to go around and tap students to help them stay awake. Remind them that it's to help them go to "retreat" to motivate them to stay awake. (*We used to bust out with Nachos around 4am to give them an extra energy boost!)
• Have at least 4-5 movies you can play to give the students something to keep them entertained.
• Give them a count-down at the end of the "bathroom break." Something like, "Alright get ready you need to be back in your seat in... 10... 9...8..."
  

After the event:

• Have enough adults and/or students to help you clean up, so you can go home not too long after it ends, so you can sleep!
• Give the church an update on the event on the following Sunday. Mention to the church that the students will be coming to collect their support funds.
  
• The students need to go and collect the money from their sponsors. (*It's best to give them that job as their responsibility to do this. You don't want to have to collect the money for a whole bunch of your students!)
  

ALTERNATE TIME:
After doing it for all night for years, I got tired of staying up all night and tired at yelling and trying to keep a few tired students awake so they could have money to go. (Some didn't seem to care around 5:30am! :)) Instead of doing it all night I started doing it on a Saturday from 9am-9pm. That way I just had to keep students rocking - not awake!

*After saying that I'd encourage you to at least try it as an all-nighter the 1st time. It makes it more exciting and challenging to the students.

The students ALWAYS loved this fund raiser. They loved it cause it was fun, easy to do, and raised them a good amount of money. Like I said, we even had students come to it who didn't even need to raise money. They came just to hang out!