Countdown to Your Volunteer Appreciation Dinner - Decorations and Entertainment!

Today we will take a moment to think about where we need to be in our planning if we are giving our volunteers an appreciation dinner this Spring. In December I encouraged you to plan a volunteer appreciation dinner and said to set your date, determine your budget and decide what type of dinner you want to have. If you have done these things you need to decide how you are going to decorate and determine what type of entertainment you want to have. Think about some of the following ideas -


Decorating Ideas -

• Obviously the type of dinner you have decided on will determine how you decorate. For example, if you are planning a spaghetti dinner, you could decorate with checkered table cloths and drippy candles and if you are going to try my dump dinner, colored plastic table cloths work very well. Ask yourself if there is an obvious decorating theme related to the type of dinner you are planning.
• Candles, flowers or balloons always add to the decorating - what type of atmosphere do you want to create? A more serious atmosphere - candles and flowers may be your best "fit". A more festive atmosphere - balloons may be just the thing!
• Photo collages may add a personal touch to your event so think if there is a wall in the area you are using for your dinner that you could cover in photos from the year of ministry. If you do this, be sure you have at least one photo with each volunteer so no one is left out.

Entertainment Ideas -

• Check with another church in your area and see if their children's minister/director might be available to speak at your volunteer appreciation dinner - you could return the favor for their dinner!
• Does your church have a small choir or ensemble?  See if they might be available to sing for your dinner.
• If you made a video for your volunteer recruitment month, show it at your dinner in a "pre-screening" for your volunteers!
• Ask some of the children in your ministry to write a short paper - one paragraph - about why they appreciate their teachers and then have them come and read their paper - if you do this, be sure to have a child from each class . . . you could have a parent help a younger child who isn't able to write/read.

These are just a few ideas to get you going. Use some of these, or come up with your own, but determine how you plan to decorate and what type of entertainment you will have for your dinner. Next month we will look at the last thing to do before your dinner.

Tomorrow I'll announce our next "Family Pick" and I'm happy to say we will be giving three of our "Family Pick" items away to three of our facebook friends! If you haven't already "liked" us on facebook, take a moment to do so and then tell the people you know about us so they can be in the drawing, too!