The Salvation Army Chatham

Through some sudden stroke of insanity, on Friday 23 May Chatham Youth Group agreed to stage a sponsored ‘Stay Awake’ to raise funds for Chikankata Hospital and Young Group Funds.

The evening started rather well with some people sweating already from a quick game of unorthodox footy in the junior hall as we sat down to watch Monsters Inc. sharing some cold pizza between us but, hey, we weren’t complaining, – yet. After the movie a few people went home: ‘I shall be thinking of you when I’m at home in bed fast asleep!’ anon. and the remaining people struck up a worship session in which quite a bit of crazy dancing was performed (which would defy the normal laws of sanity) and a lot of coke was drunk as well. It was only eleven something at that time and we were still really hyped up.

After that were some quizzes, the oldest against the youngest, (in which one team failed abysmally) but unfortunately for one team the tiredness was beginning to kick in and they kept bickering.

In the early hours of the morning, sleep was definitely on our minds but it seemed the only time it threatened to claim us was when we were immobile – not the guys though who sat in the gallery playing on the Nintendo Wii while we all watched, so Claire decided to get us active. She and Anthony set out some obstacle courses in the junior hall, one of which involved running (or tripping) in a sleeping bag to a large washing up bowl of water and dunking our heads in to try and catch some Haribo sweets with our mouths. Adam, who I feel should get a mention, was the only one on his team who decided to do it. He was nearly out of breath and in end got so fed up with being careful that he was spraying water back out of his mouth into the bucket! As he was the only guy doing it on his team it was alright. Emma, Axl and me, in the other team, decided to do it and it was disgusting – bits of hair and backwash floating around, you felt like gagging every time you went in.

Needless to say our wet encounter was just the thing to wake us up and now we were awake we were like clockwork toys that had been wound up too tightly. To release this unexpected adrenaline rush we had a fast (and violent) game of dodgeball – in which I think Anthony Day deserves a congratulation as he was one of the few people in our team who managed to stay in the most (even with Claire throwing the ball at him with the ferocity of a St. Trinian!).

Matt and Ella got busy in the kitchen making cakes and other sweet things which were very much appreciated before we all settled down for the oddest game of Uno and the Animal Game that I’ve ever had the joy of participating in (I won’t go into the extremeties of the Animal Game which included a constipated pigeon, a demented cat, and a singing tropical fish.)

Breakfast was the highlight of the event! Everyone was at breaking point (and some people even dropped off): bacon, eggs, all LOVELY, LOVELY, LOVELY! The whole night people had been counting down until breakfast and it was very much welcomed.

After we had cleared up the breakfast things everyone sat like zombies in the main hall waiting for 9 am to come and parents to come and collect them (and listening to the cheery voices of the cubs who had obviously enjoyed a good night’s sleep before going off to camp) (NB Parents please make sure you have blankets and pillows in the car when you come to collect us after the next ‘Stay Awake’)

by Jess Scott, aged 14.

(The  photos were taken in the morning when clearing up the breakfast things and trying valiantly to ‘Stay Awake’.)