all for our benefit

Well, I survived Junior Benefit Saturday night, but the process was much longer than just the 10 hours in the gym. I wish I could list for you all of the things that we accomplished to make the night happen. Here's a snippet:

• market the volleyball tournament to SAU, KY-TN conference churches, and online
  
• get enough hot dogs, buns, chips, etc. donated to feed 250+ people
• shop for the stuff we couldn't get donated (which was amazingly little)
  
• get sporting goods donated as door prizes
• plan decorations and find or buy them
• decorate the gym, trying to direct 25-ish students
• assign Juniors to posts in the gym to make the evening run smoothly
  

A couple of my favorite people at our benefit. The Mathis team was pretty funny because Don, J.P., Renee, and Tyler were the main four with Nikie as a sub. They all played at once with one subbed out, who was the designated Carson holder!

Chadd agreed to help me with the brackets for each division. The B-league bracket was kinda crazy with 12 teams. We ended up losing one who decided to drive back to Memphis after they figured out they weren't really as competitive as they thought, so that lessened some of the time it took. I think B-league had something like 22 games - best of 3 games to 15 points in each match, rally scoring.

One of our attempts to keep the younger kids off the volleyball courts was the face painting table. One of our Junior parents was our main artist, but a couple of girls from our class helped too. Michelle is painting Page's face in this picture. They're both Juniors.

Team Ley had coordinating shirts with plays on their last name, like Vol-Ley. They were one of two all-family teams. The Mathis family was the other. The Leys actually elimited the Mathis family after we bumped them into the losers' bracket.

Brandon and Corey recreated their chest bump so I could catch it.







Megan Crippen, class of '07, was a student I barely survived on ski trip two years ago. She and her friend Nicole thought it was hilarious to tickle me for some reason . . . Anyway, she's a great volleyball player and came back with two other alumni and a friend to compete in B-league. (See the Spongebob inflatable thing? A family donated that so we'd have another activity for the little kids)

Here's a wide shot of the stage area and A-league court. We used an overhead projector to trace the silhouettes onto black paper. I ran the lift to hang them up. It was really frustrating because the tape kept sticking to itself and the paper. The sponsor signs on the stage wings were painted by McKenzie and me on Thursday afternoon.

This was our concession stand after the hot dog meal was served. This kitchenette was built after the class of 2006 donated money for it as their class gift. We've used it a lot. It was just what the gym needed.

Gianna played on a team with three other alumni who graduated last year. She and Andie, one of her teammates, were in my faculty family last year. They still call me Mom when they come back to visit and I get random calls and messages on my phone from those crazy girls.



Here's what Ryan did most of the night - teach newcomers Settlers at the table on the stage. Don't worry, I was watching Carson and just set him down to take the picture. I didn't even let him eat any of the pieces!

I'll let you in on the A-league action. These guys on the left totally dominated the other teams, even with only 3 players. Two of our five A-league teams came from the Collegedale area. I wish we could have had more teams for their division.

Mark Knutson, Leif Ramsey, and a guy whose name I can't remember (he's from Norway - 6'9"!)

Amazingly, my serve was pretty much "on" for most of the night. Our last match, I was so tired that I couldn't get it over the net. My eyes were stinging and I was getting hungry again!










This was our last match, against the Jones team. They beat us with lots of little dinks in two games. I played with Shelly & Scott Miller and their friend Andrew Knecht (sp?). We did decently well and had fun playing together.

Dave Munroe, Norvella Ashby, Mark Weigand, and Alex Cox won the B-League

We're still in the process of getting funds transferred to get our final total, but I think we made close to $2,500 toward our mission trip and class expenses!