Valapalooza!

By Shawn Michael Shoup on January 22 2010

Valentine’s day is just around the corner. This is a holiday that presents a fun opportunity for student ministries to dually host a great event for your congregations and raise some extra monies for those of us struggling in the budget department. Enter “Valapalooza”…

We’ve done this event for almost a decade now and have never had a bad experience.  Here’s how we’re promoting it this year (click here).

For us, the event consists of:

• a nice, full-course dinner: cooked and prepared by students and adult volunteers; we have groups of students dress up and serve food to tables that they are assigned to for the evening and wait throughout the dinner portion of the event
• ticket sales: this year our tickets are selling for $15 a piece; we give discounts to students that are serving at the event
• door prizes: put ticket numbers on the back of all your tickets when you sell them and have attendees bring them to the event; when they arrive, place the tickets in a basket for door prizes later
• table setting and decoration: we have people sign up to bring the place settings (dishes, glasses, utensils, napkins, candles, salt and pepper shakers, etc.) and have a voting contest at the event for the most creative / crazy / decorated tables; it saves us a lot of trouble setting the tables and also provides another opportunity to award prizes!
• a photo opp: we don’t have a dress code for our event, but lots of people that attend dress up a la prom or formal events; thus, they want to have a nice picture to take home with them as a reminder.  Find a photographer in your church / community that is willing to donate their skill and camera to the cause and have them set up a scenic corner for pictures.  There has always been a line for this at our event.  Have a sign-up form ready and a few different size and price options available to make it affordable for everyone.
• dj and a dance floor: this is a big part of the event for us; (if your tradition / denomination allows for it) clear off the dance floor, get some crazy lights and strobes set up, and roll up your shirt sleeves!  Finding a dj with a great personality and high energy adds so much to the event.
• group games: our favorite annual up-front challenge is to ask a few couples in advance to participate in the Newlywed Game; our dj/host asks the guys questions as their wives / girlfriends leave the room and vice-versa.  It’s always proven to be good for lots of laughs.  Of course, if you are brave enough, it’s always fun to ask the church staff couples to compete.

In addition, there are other elements that we’ve added to the event in the past: providing child-care, an option for couples to pay for a time to share a poem or song for their “honey” at the event, a gift table, etc.  Decorate the place up and provide a great place for teens and adults alike to have fun on Valentine’s weekend!

If you want some more ideas or inspiration, feel free to browse through the pages of our student ministry’s posts on “Valapalooza” over the past few years.

============================================================

And for your viewing pleasure, here are the opening moments from our 2008 event.

First a bit of an explanation.  The video you see below is basically an elaborate and humorous set-up.  It was for a dance that our children’s pastor’s husband performed for her the previous year. She was so disappointed when she found out that his dance wasn’t caught on film the first time, so we wanted to give him a chance to do it again and catch it on film (as a surprise to her). My idea was to spoof his dance as an introduction to his.  I came up with the following crazy-cheesy choreography… (brace yourself)

---

Comments