Back to School Bash

 

When it rains, it pours, it seems, on weekend events for us! As I told you about yesterday, we volunteered with Stuff the Bus on Friday afternoon last week, and then on Saturday morning, we did another work-related event!

Our church (for the past eleven years) has had a free clothing boutique. The story of how the boutique came to be is actually really faith-boosting and inspiring. I'll have to ask my friend Julie if we can share that on here, because I think you would enjoy it. The boutique is open one Saturday morning a month, and local families in need are encouraged to shop and take what they need - no more and no less. Once a year, they have a big back to school bash, where they not only have the clothing as usual, but they also give away prizes, have crafts and games, offer brand new free backpacks and school supplies, give free haircuts to kids, and more! 

This year, my friend Julie (who runs the entire operation) invited Ryan and I to have a booth for Love INC at the event, because the families who attend are the very families we serve, and she thought this might help us get to know some of them better. We were so excited to be part of it, and we decided to put together a photo booth. Seemed more fun to have something to offer, rather than just standing there handing out brochures and business cards. 

Last week, Ryan and I went over to the church to assemble the backdrop for the photo booth. I got this idea from Pinterest, and I think it turned out SO CUTE!!! It took us a couple of hours to put it together, but we had a lot of fun talking while we worked. (Fun fact: the plywood we used for the back was actually left by the builders when we moved into our house, so it was free! All we had to buy were the paper plates and the tape. And we got all the paper plates at the Dollar Tree, so it was fairly cost effective.)

Here are some pictures from assembly day:

Saturday morning, we carried the backdrop outside and propped it up on the side of the church. We also had a table with some props...we got these from Amazon. They were all back-to-school related! 

Isn't it so colorful and fun? We received a lot of compliments on it! One mom stopped and said, "I just want a picture of the backdrop so I can make one sometime." OKAY!! :) 

Ryan and I had some fun with it:

And here I am with Julie!

Julie said we served over 300 people that day, and it was a record-breaking year. It was a really big blessing for us to get to be part of it, and we loved it. 

At the end of the event, right before the prize drawings, Ryan was able to speak a little bit about the work of Love INC. There were a couple of other ministries there too, and they also shared. 

And before we went home, we shared a snow cone!!

Photo bomb by Jonathan!

We were super thankful the weather held for the morning, since there were some questionable forecasts leading up to the day. And we were thankful for a chance to serve the community!