Rock On! And On...And On...And On...

Our annual youth group Rock-A-Thon fundraiser at church is a much anticipated event by the teens in our youth group.

This great thing about this event is that it doubles as a fun all-night lock-in (from 8 pm to 8 am) for our youth group all while helping to raise funds to help our missionaries.

This year the funds raised will go to a missionary Doctor who works in rural Mexico at a medical clinic that provides free medical care and medicine to folks who would never be able to afford it otherwise. As you can imagine, such clinics are always in need of additional medicine, supplies and updated equipment and training.

That’s where our fundraiser comes in. The teens go out and get pledges of support (either by the hour or a set amount) as for a Walk-A-Thon except that instead of walking, they rock.

All night long.

In rocking chairs.

For a 12 hour event.

And lucky us, we get to be the chaperones.

Actually we do enjoy it, but it gets harder and harder each year to pull all-nighters.

After all, we're not spring chickens anymore, and getting up at 5:30 every morning to babysit means I turn into a pumpkin around 9pm most nights.

With a Rock-A-Thon, the participants rocking chairs (and sometimes porch swings if we’re hard pressed to round up enough rocking chairs) must remain moving for 55 out of every 60 minutes. If they must take a break during that time, someone must keep their chair rocking for them.

Here Chef Jeff whips up deluxe hamburgers with all kinds of great toppings and go-withs.

We set up various ‘stations’ to rotate all the participants through...for video games, Karaoke and movies. Those attending can feel free to do whatever it takes to stay awake read or play board games if they wish…so long as they keep rocking.

Our Pastor usually drops by for a devotional around 10 or 11 pm. And yes, they were still rocking.

Even Judah got into this event, “Rocking out” on his Hardly Dangerous Harley.

Although it did later prove to be dangerous when he tripped while running to hop onto his "Hog" ending up with a big old knot on his forehead.

The kind that immediately swells up just like on cartoons.

Thankfully it wasn’t so bad as to warrant a trip to the E.R. .

Here his beloved toy puppy is pressed into service holding the ice pack to his head.

As you can tell, Judah doesn't seem to be feeling too bad.

For some reason (mostly because Jeff enjoys cooking for these events) it usually falls to me to wend my way between those 'stations' in our church fellowship hall periodically saying things like, “Keep rocking!” and "get a move on" whenever the rocking chairs begin to slow down.

Though this is particularly fun about 2 or 3 in the morning when kids actually start falling asleep and you get to go startle them awake with loud clapping (ahhh, such power.)

I always try and bring along a good book, a magazine or two and some sort of handiwork to keep myself busy all night.

Last year I made a couple of aprons, but this year I made a significant dent on a crocheted afghan I'm making for Jericho's bedroom.

Obviously, with an event that begins at 8 pm, keeping a bunch of teenagers rocking all night is a bit of a challenge.

It's work to keep those chairs moving for 12 hours.

Especially if they pull up blankets and pillows and get too warm and cozy in their chairs.

Because then things begin to slow waaay down, and time begins to drag by.

Like when they all crash from all the sugar and junk food around 2 am or so.

That’s usually when we break out the homemade Frappucinos.

We've found that caffiene and playing a few rounds of Guitar Hero and a little Karaoke seems to work best in getting blood flowing to the brain again.

Alas, after the hour (um, make that three, just to be safe) of checking his pupils and making sure he was completely coherent, Judah just couldn't hang anymore.

And by 4 am, neither could I.

I leaned my head down on my arms and dozed for a few minutes.

Some chaperhone I am, huh? It was just a cat-nap, trust me.

Later, Jeff did the same. (Not at the same time as me, however, because that would have been plain old irresponsible of us.)

And don't worry, parents, the teens were all embroiled in a battle of the bands during that time.

Then we all got our second wind, and it carried us through breakfast and to the end of the event.

Well, that and waking Judah periodically to check his pupils.

And he was fine.

The 11 teens that participated have so far (and not all pledges have been collected yet) managed to bring in over $600 to help with missions, which is pretty good for a small church group like ours.

By the time the event ended, the fellowship hall was already clean and set back to rights and our van was loaded.

There are always a few kids whose parents forget what time they were to be picked up, and so we had to stick around until about 8:30 or so, but the moment that last kid was gone we were out of there.

We drove straight home, unloaded the van, fed the dog, and went straight to sleep.

Because a couple of hours later, we had to have Jericho back to the church for an Awana Games practice.

Later still we attended a last-minute 1st birthday party for our nephew's son.

We were really dragging by about 6 pm and that night we went to bed far earlier than usual, sleeping straight through until it was time to get up and get ready for church on Sunday.

Not even Judah and Jericho woke during that 11 or 12 hours.

We felt downright lazy for sleeping for so long on a Saturday, but the next morning at church had kids report that they'd gone home after the event and taken a brief nap, got up to do chores, then got to bed really early slept all the way through until morning...for 16 straight hours!

Aside from needing that little power nap in the middle of the event, for almost middle aged folks we didn't do half bad!