What could make six teams of four local teens each travel more than 120 miles to do 18 (potentially embarrassing) tasks, and go to 23 destinations? Trinity’s Amazing Race Around Vinton!
The race began at Trinity Lutheran Church 8:00AM Saturday, April 22nd and covered much of northern Benton County.
Tasks included: completing an obstacle course dressed in fire-fighting gear and hitting targets with fire extinguishers at the local fire station, putting and driving tasks at the Country Club, finding pennies buried in sand at a local playground, setting 30 tables and 180 chairs for a local benefit breakfast for a church member battling cancer, decoding the Constitution at the library, and collecting dates from gravestones at the local cemetery, plus many others.
The first time we did this, the winners received 3 candy bars, 2nd place 2 candy bars and 3rd place 1 candy bar each. This time around, I rounded-up local support for the youth through this race and secured nearly $1,200 worth of prizes.
The purpose of the race was to build camaraderie within the group and strengthen friendships with non-church member friends. All was done in the Name of Christ and we used this event to spread a little bit of His Love for us to our youth group, their friends and our community during the Easter Season.
We had 40 people gathered for our lunch devotion including 8 non-member youth. We also used the race for shameless self-promotion through flyers and personal invitations to non-member participants’ parents. As a result, our Saturday evening worship had 90 people in attendance, a third more than usual.
A simple press release to local papers and TV stations also attracted the attention of the local CBS affiliate and 3 local papers. KGAN featured our story on the 10:00 Saturday news. The Vinton Eagle and Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Gazette both covered the race with color pictures and lengthy articles. Praise God for the Press!
