R.A.C.K Activity

Tonight was the BIG Random Acts of Christmas Kindness (RACK) combined YM/YW activity!  Sis Lee started this tradition at least 3 years ago, and I had to carry on that tradition, b/c the youth love it.  They said that they look forward to it every year, and it helps get them in the CHRISTmas spirit.  I knew from serving w/ Sis. Lee in past years that it’s A LOT of work to put it all together, but I had NO IDEA just how much prep work is really involved.  I’ve been working on this for over a month.  I even had to create word documents & a spreadsheet to keep it all organized.

Here’s a rough overview of what we did.  If you’re interested in doing this with your youth group, let me know and I can send you the files.  We met at the church and watched THIS 2 minute video to remember the reason we’re doing this in the first place.  We have about 50 youth, so I created “tasks” for 5 groups.  We also had 2 adult drivers per group.  I am kicking myself now for not taking pictures of everything!  Anyways, I gave each group a paper sack w/ everything they would need already inside of it.  There was a big white sealed packet w/ the 7 tasks they were to complete.  They started with envelope #1 and it told them to do:

Task #1:  Write on a note card 3 ideas for combined Young Men/Young Women activities for next year.

Task #2:  Take the two baggies w/ $1.50 each in them, and go to WalMart (I sent each group to a different store like Target, the grocery store, the $1 Store, etc) and take the baggies to 2 different vending machines or RedBox machines.  The baggies had these notes from this blog attached to them.  I know it says “family” on it and that it says we’re doing something every day (which we weren’t), but this was the closest thing I could find to what I wanted so I just used it and called it good.  I liked how it said to pay it forward if you can & I liked the Aesop quote.

Task #3: While at WalMart (or Target, $1 Store, etc) give out 5 candy canes w/ the RACK note attached to 5 different employees of the store.  Tell them thank you for working long and hard hours in all kinds of weather.  If it’s not too disturbing to customers in the store, sing a Christmas carol to the employees.

Task #4:  Take these 10 snowflakes (I found a package of 32 at the $1 Store in the teaching/school aisle) and write a nice message on them for _____________ in the ward.  Then sneakily tape them to their door, leave the bag of powdered donuts, ring the doorbell, and RUN!  Try not to get caught.  The snowman printable is from THIS blog.

Task #5:  This is such a fun one that I had them do it another time for another family in the ward.  I asked the Bishop for some people he knew in the ward that could use some cheering up, and then I also came up w/ some names on my own (like some single sisters that I visit teach).

Task #6:  I had each group gather & bring back at least 5 cans of food that I would take later and donate to the local food pantry.  They could get the cans from their house, a friend’s house, a member of the church’s house, or just go to the store and buy some.  It was up to them and whatever was easiest for their group to do based on location.

Task #7:  Stop at the hospital parking lot and leave a candy cane w/ the RACK note attached on the windshield of a car that didn’t have one.

For one group, I had them go to an area of town that gets their trash picked up on Wednesdays, and had them take the trash cans from off the street of 10 houses and put them up near the garage.  Then they had to tape a RACK note to the garbage can.  They did that instead of “snowflaking” the 2 houses like the other teams did.

Once they were done w/ their 7 tasks, they came back to the church where we had hot chocolate, marshmallows, and a Costco cake waiting for them.  In years past, we’ve given the first team to be completed a small treat (like a candy bar) for being first.  But this year I decided that the LAST team to complete their tasks would be the winners, b/c that meant they took their time and didn’t just try to rush through it.  The point was to help the youth feel the Spirit of CHRISTmas, not just to win a game.

Can I just say how much I LOVE Costco cakes?  I had originally bought 2 trays of cookies from WalMart for the refreshments, but that cost $20 and there weren’t nearly enough to feed everyone.  I got this HUGE (9 pound) cake from Costco for just $18.99, and it’s super good and we had more than enough for everyone, w/ some left over.  Costco cakes are the way to go!

I am SO GLAD that this activity is over and that it was successful.  One thing I did was put on some the tasks that they had to text me a picture of what they were doing, b/c I love pictures.  Plus, this way I can include some of their fun antics in the end-of-the-year slide show.