After the worship service we had an "indoor" cookout to celebrate. Due to the hurricane nature of the storm that day, heavy winds and a rain downpour, we adjusted our plans from an outdoor event to an indoor event. Considering the day - wet and dreary outside - there was happiness and light shining inside on us! The fellowship hall was packed. Everyone appeared in good spirits enjoying the fellowship, food and activities.

Marie Morrison and Patti Doucette organized the cookout. They purchased the food, drinks, and paper goods on behalf of the Capital Campaign Executive Committee, which paid for the event. We had hot dogs, hamburgers/cheese, potato chips, and several homemade salads. The Sunday School youth 6^th through 8^th grades set up beautiful tables for our fellowship. "Chefs" Pastor Ken and Charlie Morrison cooked on the kitchen grille for us.

As a special treat for Celebration Sunday, Kelly Imbody arranged for her employer Orchard Ice Cream to donate enough ice cream and all the toppings to make 100 ice cream sundaes! Kelly also generously made two custom-made ice cream cakes for the occasion.

Chuck Kemp planned "rain or shine" activities for the youth. If cookout was outside, we were going to have badminton tournaments, bocci and croquet games. Ed Meleschuk chipped in and purchased both a badminton and croquet set for the church. But being an indoor day, the kids had a blast playing Twister, checkers, jump rope, and hula hoop! What started out as a simple game of checkers between Chuck Kemp and Jamie Wang, turned into a giant match with as many as 10 kids playing at once. The kids formed two teams and worked together trying to outsmart the other team. We are blessed with quite a few checkers experts in our church. Philip Jones, Kaitlyn Jones, Danielle Newton, Moriah Rodriguez, and many others played well and behaved wonderfully.

Mark Sullivan entertained and made balloon animals for the children!

Sue McGeoghegan, Debbie Mousseau, and Donna Simmons (Amanda Iozzo's aunt) shared photographs from the Kick-Off Dinner. We even had a lovely collage of photos. It was nice to reminisce about the Kick Off Dinner, which was held at the Wyndham Hotel in May.

Lots of people helped with clean up. Everyone seemed to pitch in and help with whatever needed to be done. The day was truly an example of teamwork - many parts and one body. It reminded me of Ephesians 4:16 "under His direction the whole body fitted together perfectly, and each part in its own special way helps the other parts, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love."

We received many compliments about the celebration. Everyone had a good time.
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