I wanted to follow up last week’s post with another great event idea. This one incorporates an aspect of serving the community and comes straight from our BASIC group at Onondaga Community College!
Last year the OCC BASIC group held an event called the Christmas ExtravaCANza and they are doing it again this year. The main idea is that the event is for collecting canned and boxed goods for a local food pantry. For every canned or boxed good a student brings they get 1 raffle ticket that goes toward drawings for gift cards. They hang up Christmas stockings with the name of each gift card they are giving away on them and students drop their raffle tickets into the stockings that have gift cards they want to win. Last year the event had over 60 people come and Eric and Jenn Trelease’s Jeep was filled to the brim with canned goods!
Of course the event has some other fun things as well. Lots of free food is available and Christmas music is playing the whole time. They also play games like a blindfolded Christmas cookie decorating contest and a Guys vs. Girls Christmas tree decorating contest. To wrap up the event someone shares a Christmas themed sermon.
This event is a great way of drawing in new students, getting an opportunity to share a Gospel message, and teaching them to serve the poor like the Bible instructs us to.
Luke 3:11 (NIV) “John (the Baptist) answered, ‘Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.’”
Proverbs 14:31 (NIV) “Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.”