Connecting with club members this summer will spice up kids’ summertime and keep your club program on their radar until club starts in the fall. If you include prospective club members in your plans, you’ll have a jump on getting to know each other, which makes it more likely that they will feel comfortable joining you in the fall. Why not try one or two of these ideas.
Email Photos. A few times during the summer, email a photo or two that you took of club during the club year. If club members don’t have email addresses, email the photos to their parents and ask them to pass them along—or drop them in the mail. Write a comment or two about the fun you had. Have club members add their comments and “reply to all.”
Activity Award. Summer is a great time to do an activity award that you may not have had the time or weather for earlier in the year. For instance, get kids together to spend an afternoon doing an award from the Outdoors and Camping section of the club member handbook.
“Tee” Party. Plan a Frisbee golf game at church. Set up “holes” indoors and outdoors around the property. Holes can be wastebaskets and boxes set on their sides, or even trees. Make holes go down hallways, around corners and through obstacles. Mark a tee for each hole with the number of the hole by it.
Individuals or teams can start at different tees and see how many throws it takes to get a Frisbee in each hole. Provide pencils and score cards with pars on them. Make sure the club leaders play, too, to interact with the kids.
Photo Scavenger Hunt. Make a list of 20 activities kids can do in and around your church: shoot a basket in the gym, stir a pot in the kitchen, sing in the sanctuary, act out Daniel in the lions’ den and so on. Include activities they will be doing in club this year.
Give each small group a digital camera and send them off with the list. Their task is to get pictures of all of their group (minus the photographer) doing each activity. Award prizes for the fastest group, the funniest picture, most creative pose and so on. Have kids scroll through the pictures and guess which ones show activities they will do in club this year. If possible, bring printers, print some of the photos and let children make posters of the fun they had.
Choose Your Own Ending. Order One-Year® Choose Your Own Ending Devotions books (item #2605 under Recruiting Resources in our online store www.pioneerclubs.org/resources) as a gift for your club members. Choose a particular day (or a week) of devotions that you will all do individually. Ask kids to write down some things they learn or questions they think of. Then get together to discuss.
