Each year the Vilonia UMC youth host Valentine’s dinner to raise funds for their mission trips and conference youth events. Students are not asked to pay to attend these trips. Instead, the students hold a few churchwide fundraisers each year, and this is one of them. This is the first time in three years that they have been able to have the dinner in person due to Covid. For the last few years, the dinner was only available for pick-up.
This past week the youth held the banquet, and they did everything from setting up the tables and serving the food to having a competition to see who earns the most tips. This year VIllonia UMC “tweens” (5-7th graders) got to help, too, because many of them can now go to Ozark Mission Project and ACCYM Veritas.
At this year’s event, there was a photo booth. One of our youth, Anslee Garner, took all the pictures and played a game of Newlyweds vs. Oldieweds that Rev. Lauren Delano, senior pastor, and her husband, Jacob got to participate in.
Our youth pastor Andrea Stitt puts a lot of work into organizing the event alongside our Church Family Life team and youth parents. “It’s a great fellowship event that offers an opportunity for the youth to say thanks for the support and to serve the church,” shared Rev. Delano.