The Zehrs: Youth Group Olympics

This past Saturday we had Youth Group Olympics. We had so much fun and I think the students did too! I hope it becomes tradition for the Vincennes Free Methodist youth group. The Olympics kicked off at 9:30 that morning. We had 8 students show up. I was hoping there would be more but it turned out well having 4 teams of 2. The students were in teams but earned individual points because the teams changed for each event.

The first event was a Horseshoes tournament. None of the students had ever played before so it was pretty interesting to watch. There were only two ringers scored the whole time. Most points were scored by who got the closest!

Evan and Luke were the winners of the Horseshoe tournament.

The next event was Bocce Ball. The students did great with this event. They were given 45 minutes to score as many points as they could. We had to have a tie breaker at the end for 2nd and 3rd place.

Kourtney and Luke were the winners of Bocce Ball.

The third event was a Rock Paper Scissors tournament. That was probably the most intense event we did! Aaron had the students stand on a bench when they were competing while everyone stood around them cheering. It was pretty hilarious! For the championship round the students who were out were able to wager points on the remaining competitors.

Kelsey was the winner of Rock Paper Scissors.

For our fourth event of the day we went to the cemetery and had a scavenger hunt. The students were to find different things on the stones such as a name that is 13 letters long, or someone that was born on Christmas and take a picture of it. One of the groups got a little creative and found a statue of Jesus and counted it for someone that was born on Christmas. They were able to get bonus points for finding multiple things on 1 stone. Sorry..no picture of the winners.

After lunch we had our 5th and final Olympic event. Inspired by Reslife week at IWU we had a cardboard boat race. The students had to construct a boat made only out of cardboard and duct tape. The person racing the boat had to be on it or in it the whole race. We went to a couple's house from church for the race because they live next to a pond. The students had 1 hour to build their boats. We invited the church to come out to watch them build the boats and then race them. It was quite the ordeal! My favorite part of the day! After the students were finished with their boats they carried them to the pond with the Olympic theme song in the background. The students then shared why they constructed their boats the way they did and what they named them. We had three judges to pick the best name and best design of the boats. The winning teams were given points as well as the winner of the race. The race began at a neighbor's dock and finished at the one we were at. It was pretty hilarious to watch. The church people loved it and thought it was so much fun!

Evan, Steven, and Conner with their boat "Living on a Prayer". They won the best design award because it was actually shaped like a boat.

Sunny and Kourtney with their boat "Big Bertha". They also had a bumper sticker that said,"If you can read this, you are getting beat by girls." They won the award for the best name.

Kelsey and Evan with their boat "USS Cardboard".

Luke and Graham with their boat "Cardboard Cruiser".

Evan, Steven, and Conner were the winners of the boat race.
After the race we had the awards ceremony where the top three finishers were presented with their medals.