Some G&E Lessons Learned

Blaze has really been thrilled with the attendance for this year's Games & Eats. As we hoped, G&E has served as a wonderful way to introduce Aldersgate to the families and youth of our neighborhood. The combination of games, activities, and food has been successful so far and each week new familes or young people have dropped by to see what was going on. Churches are at their best when they give back to their communities.
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Last year we ended Games & Eats when the youth went back to school, but this year, because we started late, we carried it over into the school year and it has worked out great. Now we face the decision of whether it will work as a winter event. The youth group made the decision early on that this would be our gift to the neighborhood and if G&Es was the only time our guests ever came through the doors of Aldersgate we would not be disappointed.
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The first 2 seasons of G&Es has taught us a few things:
1. THE BANNER. From talking with our guests we learned that while driving by the church they noticed our banner which we had specially made for G&E. We used to think taking it down after every event and then putting it up right before the next event would help it get noticed. However, leaving it up all the time seems to work better. The banner simply reads: "Free Games & Eats" "Every 2nd & 4th Friday" "6:30 PM to 8:30 PM." Making the event every 2nd and 4th Friday, rather than every other Friday, or even every Friday, has worked out very well.
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2. FOOD. The food is nothing elaborate: hot dogs, cheese burgers, and pizza from Costco, BJ's, or Sam's and recently we added BarBQ from Woodbines in Norfolk. After that its just 4 or 5 two liter bottles of soda (Coke, Dr. P, and Sprite) and usually a baked dessert like brownies and chocolate chip cookies. You can feed 35 people for about $40 if you're careful.
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3. GAMES. We had a tons of games before we got started but you only need a few. The most popular games have been: Cornhole or Tail Gate Toss (of course), Risk, Settlers of Catan, Battleship, Apples to Apples, Clue, Sequence, Connect Four, and Chess. [The teenagers always want to play "Loaded Questions" but I know from experience that is just asking for trouble. ;) Recently, many of the kids have wanted to start G&E outside to play basketball and football and this has worked out OK, but with it getting dark earlier this will not be possible much longer. (37) (34)