Hard to say what my favorite part was... I LOVED the music! I had never seen the Chelsea House Orchestra play before, and I was definitely impressed. Very cool. Of course I also enjoyed seeing so many kids having fun - playing Guitar Hero, getting their faces painted, decorating cookies (suppiles donated by Cole Funeral Chapel), and playing soccer and basketball. But I think best of all was watching friends and families work together to eat half a pie (donated from Meijer and Polly's) during the final event in the SRSLY Olympics. I know everyone was already full of pizza (donated by Jet's and Thompson's), donuts (donated by Pierce's), sandwiches (donated by Zou Zou's), popcorn, and pop... oh, and six different kids of chili, all washed down with cornbread! But even with those busting bellies, every team dug deep and ate their share of pie.
Best of all, the whole thing was the idea of kids. You guys came up with this concept at our SRSLY youth meeting way back in November. You said that there need to be more good options for fun things to do on evenings and weekends in Chelsea - and look what happened! The great thing about this community is that adults really do care about kids, and they want to help them be happy, and support them in their decision to stay drug and alcohol free. So when you guys said you wanted a party, adults made it happen. Of course, we couldn't have done it without your help at the brainstorming session (as a non-gamer, I never would have thought to have Guitar Hero there, but that was definitely a highlight for lots of people at the party!) So keep those ideas coming, and if we continue to work together, we can make lots more good stuff happen.
Obviously this type of fun doesn't just happen - it takes time and energy to plan and coordinate all the moving parts, and it takes warm bodies to make it happen when the time comes. Everyone who came owes a HUGE thank you to the following volunteers, who helped plan, organize, and pull off the srsly fun party:
Andy Ingall
Abby Ingall
Pat Conlin
Beth Morris
Jason Boyer
John Knox
Cyndi Jabara
Samantha Jabara
Nancy Fritzmeier
Thuy Bui
Sara Wild
Chris Stehlik
Patty Sweeney
Tim Sweeney
Tracy McCormic
Emma Argiroff
Hope Morrow
Jim O'Neill
Angie O'Neill
Nancy Siegrist
Gary Siegrist
The Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs of Chelsea also deserve a big thank you for their donations of funding for supplies and refreshments, as does the Chelsea School District for the donation of space and equipment. (Pat Little suggested we use the smartboards for video games - genius!) And thanks to the McCormic Family for donating all the black balloons. They looked great with our green ones. :)
So in closing, thanks to everyone who made this possible, and I can't wait for the SECOND annual SRSLY Fun New Year's Eve Party!
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