Sharing with some Great Kids

Blaze and Team Aldersgate continued the Cooke Elementary After School Program in February. Our youth have been wonderfully dedicated in their support of this outreach. Afterwards we stoped at Chicos.

A New Annual Tradition is Born

From January 27 to 29, 2012, Blaze traveled to the mountains of Goshen, Va for the annual youth retreat. After years of attending the annual retreat in Blackstone, Va the District chose the Rockbridge Young Life Camp. Our youth had a great time being involved in many activities which included listening to wonderful speakers, attending concerts held by the Keith Elgin Band, rock climbing, a giant swing, football, basketball, frisbee golf, and a game room with ping pong, foosball and pool. The temperature was in the mid 40s during the day, but it felt quite a bit cooler than that. The evenings felt very cold, but the clear star filled skies made up for the cold. It looks like one of our youth received a broken nose playing football, but with that one exception everyone returned safely home. We stopped at Cracker Barrel on the way home.

New Year's Lock-in

The 2011-2012 Lock-in was almost canceled for what appeared to be lack of interest, but turned out to be the the best attended lock-in to date with 25 youth and 3 former Blaze attending as well. We walked over to St Peter's for their wonderful midnight mass (which for future reference has everyone gathering at about 10:45 PM).

Light Rail Trip to Buffalo Wild Wings

On December 4th, Blaze spent Sunday afternoon together watching football and munching wings at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Cooke Elementary After School Program Remains a Great Outreach for Our Youth

The first Wednesday of every month we get the pleasure of preparing and serving a good meal to a bunch of wonderfully appreciative kids. We did so again on November 2nd. Truly it is in giving that we are blessed.

Trunk or Treat 2011

Every year your youth and members show a flair for getting into the Halloween spirit. This year was no different.

Gathering Again for Kids

On October 19th we resumed our support of the Cooke Elementary After School Program at Va. Beach United Methodist Church.

Free Pool with Lunch @ Q-Masters

Blaze was the beneficiary of the absent-mindedness of its youth leader who bought frozen pizzas last week, but left them on the counter at church rather than put them in the freezer. So we walked two miles to Q-Masters for lunch and pool instead.

Light Rail to Johnny Rockets

Blaze took the light rail to Johnny Rockets on Sunday. Everyone had a great time. Our fellow Blaze member, Jake, left with his family this morning for Indiana so we took a moment to send him a message. "Hi Jake".

Breakfast & Golf

Blaze grabbed breakfast at Cracker Barrel and hit the Links at City Park on Saturday. The outing was sort of a make up for the cancellation of the End of the Summer trip due to Hurricane Irene. Tucker and Courtney scored the lowest scores for the day. Thank you Dan, Bob, Patsy, and Jake's Aunt for driving.

Summer 2011 * Games & Eats #3

Games & Eats continues to be the place to be in our neighborhood every 2nd and 4th Friday of each month this summer. Football, Volleyball, cornhole, Risk, Jenga and other games continue to be hits. Thanks again for all the support. (32)

Free Pool

Blaze could be seen a few times in July taking advantage of the free pool offer with the purchase of lunch at Q-Masters. Its great to have the largest billards facility in the United States right here.

Food & Fun

Our youth and neighbors got together for pizza and games Friday night. Jenga, Stratego, Pictionary, and football seemed to be the games of interest this time. Thank you everyone for your help. (30).

3RD SEASON OF GAMES & EATS BEGINS

Chilli dogs were the main course that went with Chess, Scrabble, Settlers of Catan, and Cornhole on June 10th as the neighborhood's youth joined to kick off this summer's first Games & Eats. (27)

6th Annual Blaze Golf Tournament

On May 28th the 2011 Blaze Golf Tournament was held at the Links at City Park in Portsmouth. The youth and adult volunteers made this year's event a huge success and a lot of fun. As it turns out this was the biggest tournament we've had. Thanks for playing and supporting the event.
- This year's award recipients were: Tyler M: Best Drive; Madison G: Most difficult putt; Elizabeth F: Best Approach Shot; Tucker S: Most Awesome Shot; Garrett H: Most Skillful Banana Ball (Slice); Joey F: Best Overall; Guy W: Best Shot Out of Trouble; Joey F: Best Use of Natural Surroundings; John F: Best Happy Gilmore Moment (most unconventional shot) ; Alex B: Best Tin Cup Moment (going for it); Courtney M: Best Bagger Vance Moment (divine intervention); Jake M: Best Use of Weapons of Grass Destruction.

- The Links at City Park is the perfect place to hold a youth golf outing. The course will permit you to play only 9 holes on Saturdays (they only have 9 holes actually) and the cost for students is only $7.00 if they walk the course and carry their bag. A pull cart is $2.00 more. The cost of golf carts are also reasonable, but we always walk. They have a snack bar that has a great hotdog. Not too many water hazards so you don't lose as many balls as you might on other courses. Helpful friendly course personnel. Sometime mosquitoes can get bad in the summer so bring some insect repelant. Also hats and sun screen help. It always takes longer to play 9 holes than you think when you start several foursomes. We started at 9 AM and the last team walked off around 12:30 PM. Great trophies are not expensive and we had G&W Awards on Poplar Halls Road in Norfolk do them for us.