Parent/Student Progressive Dinner Updated!

I posted yesterday about our Parent/Student Progressive Dinner and added a slide show of some of the pics from our photo booth. After posting it I was looking back through the pictures and kept thinking we missed some people. I did! Somehow several pictures ended up in a different folder on my memory card – don’t you love technology?

Since we have such beautiful people in our church family, I felt they needed to be in the slide show.

So, check out the updated video below and gaze and the awesomeness of our families!

Parent/Student Progressive Dinner

When our IMPACT Leadership Team met in the summer to look at our school year calendar and plan various events, activities and service projects, we also talked about how we could do specific events for the family. We wanted to have something on our calendar that brought the family together. One event happened this past weekend – our Parent/Student Progressive Dinner.

We have done progressive food events in the past and thought it would be a fun event for families. Who doesn’t like to eat? We decided to host it in the church building and incorporate some interactive elements. We made it a football theme, gathered food you might eat while tailgating and included some football trivia activities. We also had a photo booth. It’s always fun to capture pictures of each event and the photo booth was a way to do that and let the personalities of our families come out.

A brief video containing some of the photo booth pictures is below. We look forward to doing more events that bring students and parents together!

IMPACT Tailgate Party Video

Last Sunday we had a Tailgate Party for our students. People tailgate before football games, why not before church! We had a good time with some tasty breakfast food, 9 Square (our students love that game), corn hole and even some gift card giveaways.

Dale put some of our pics into a video. Check it out:

Middle School Football Amazing Play

This past weekend our junior high students attended the Christ In Youth BELIEVE Convention at Northern Kentucky University.  We joined with about 6,000 other junior high students and adults to sing, laugh, listen, learn and grow.  (We might have eaten some pizza, too!)

In the final session, the speaker was encouraging us to use the gifts and abilities and influence God has given us for others.  He said that means having an influence on whomever God may put in our path.

He shared a few examples of students he knew that invested their time and energy to impact others.  He then showed a video clip about a middle school football team who went out of their way to make a difference in the life of one of their teammates. It’s not only a good story, but a great example for all of us.

Massie Pride Video (Part 2)

About a year ago, I posted a video made by a Clinton-Massie student and alum about Clinton-Massie’s run to the state football championship. As just about everyone in our area knows, the team made it back-to-back state titles this year. They played some strong teams in the playoffs and pulled off a couple come from behind victories to become Div IV defending state champions.

The two guys that made the video last year have come out with a part 2. The community is very supportive of the team and this video is just one example. It looks like they had some fun making it, too.

B1G Division Realigns

I am a pretty big fan of Indiana basketball, but also keep track of football. While the football program hasn’t experienced the same success as the basketball program, they continue to improve. When we visited Indiana last summer, we walked out on the football field and went through the weight room. Very nice facilities for the football team for sure.

Earlier today there was a tweet from the Crimson Quarry that provided the realignment of Big Ten football. Instead of going with the Leaders and Legends, they have gone with a geographic split. Indiana is in the Big Ten East and have a rough schedule ahead of them. It will be a challenge to win in that division, but hopefully it will bring more quality football players in IU.

Here’s the new divisions. Tough road for the Hoosiers for sure.

Big Ten East
Rutgers
Maryland
Penn State
Ohio State
Michigan
Michigan State
Indiana

Big Ten West
Purdue
Northwestern
Illinois
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Iowa
Nebraska

Super Bowl Ads

Every year much is made of the Super Bowl halftime show and the commercials that are a part of it. I’ve already seen many posts about the halftime show and what many people disliked about it. I won’t add more verbage to all the words already out there, other than the fact that, in my opinion, the halftime show seems more like an interruption to the game. But I digress….

What creates almost as much dialogue are the commercials. I saw some, but missed most during the game. If that was you, there is a place you can see all of them and even weigh in on whether you liked them or not. USA Today has a webpage where you can view and vote on commercials. If you are looking for 30 second long interruptions to your day, check out the Ad Meter on USA Today.com to see all the commercials.

Falcon Pride Video

People in our area have been celebrating the fact that the Clinton-Massie Falcon football team won the state championship last Friday. The Falcons are the first Clinton County team to win a state title and they also set a state record for points scored in a season.

One of the cool aspects of the run to state was the support the team received from both the school (especially the students) and the community. A couple of the CM students put this video together. It kind of leaked out before the championship game, but fortunately the team backed it up on the field. It’s a fun video to watch, especially if you are a Falcon fan.

Visit to U. of Michigan

The last few months have given us a unique opportunity to visit several schools as Syd makes a decision about where she will go to school. We’ve had visits to Indiana and Louisville along with several others. This past weekend took us to Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan. (I can almost hear the groan from all my Buckeye friends).  She was one of several prospects checking out the school.

Michigan has a new coaching staff and are beginning the process of building a team that wins championships.  The new staff is high energy and we had the opportunity to watch the team practice. It was fun to watch as they ran drills, worked on offense and defense and prepared for the upcoming season.  The practice facility is newly renovated and the courts and locker room are quite nice.  The Division 1 schools I have seen really put money into the athletic facilities.

This is a look at the locker room. Pretty nice set up.

This is the hallway that leads to Crisler Arena where the teams play their games. It has gone under major renovation and looks very nice. There is a camera in the hallway that projects on the scoreboard so the fans can see the team in the tunnel before they come out.

This weekend was also the Michigan/Michigan State game. We were part of the 113,00+ people who were in attendance. The crowd was pretty excited about beating their rivals and it turned out to be the 900th victory in U of M football history.

We met some of the coaches from the men’s team and had a good visit. Now, she just needs to decide where she’s going to land.

Sportsmanship Wins Again

Several months ago there was a great story about a high school track athlete that quit running to help a fallen competitor finish the race. Listening to the radio this morning, I heard a similar story, this time on the football field.

A St. Clairsville, Ohio, football player was on his way to his 12th touchdown of the season, nearing the end zone after a 52 yard running play. He stepped out at the 1 yard line so a teammate could score a touchdown in honor of his father who just passed away from a stroke.

The player, who is a starter on the freshman team, plays sparingly at best on varsity and never lined up at running back. He followed his blocker and scored on the first play. It was his first touchdown and he said he knew his father was watching.

In a time where we hear of bad behavior from athletes – and parents, too! – it is refreshing to hear a story like this one.

You can read a more detailed account on the USA Today High School Sports website.