12 Months of Kindness 2016 Update

It's almost to the end of the year and we have had a very succesful time with 12 Months of Kindness this year.  With only one more act to go, I'm here with a recap of our year in kindness.

January: We created and delivered blessing bags to our local soup kitchen.  We put together six bags all together - three each that contained gender specific items.  The kids liked packing the bags and then they were proud to carry them in and deliver them (during the prep-time) in which we requested the bags be given out as needed based on the regular volunteers thoughts.  

February: We gave some love to a classroom through Donors Choose and were lucky to be able to support a former high school classmate in her elementary school classroom.

March: Our family volunteered time at the Johnstown Backpack Project to create weekend meal bags for local students in need.  The kids LOVE volunteering at JBP and working in the assembly line style packing line.  It is a wonderful organization that seems to be growing each time we visit.

April: We collected up our own gently used items and purchased a few new items to deliver Baby & Mom supplies to our local YWCA.  We gave items ranging from maternity clothes to diapers.

May: For the eighth year in a row, we selected and awarded our Studer Scholarship to two CV seniors (our high school alma mater).  Brandon and I had ourselves a little date night at the Senior banquet and are inspired every single year by the amount of people from our community that give back to our high school seniors. 

June: To celebrate our new baby brother, we created Birthday Boxes and delivered them to an incredible local non-profit Alleghenies Unlimited Care Providers who work towards giving independence to people of all abilities.   

July October: We postponed our annual Studer's Invitational Beer Olympics (the 8th!) until October to give our family some time to get back on track during our Rusty's rotten first 8 weeks.  But we were ready to host our event come October and had a great turnout.  As always, our friends and family astound us in their generosity and enthusiasm towards having fun for a good cause.  We were able to raise over $360 for a local family who inspires so many people in their kindness towards other and perserverance in the face a challenges.  

August: We purchased and donated supplies to our local Humane Society and then made a little visit with the cats & pups who haven't found their forever family yet. 

September: We donated a backpack filled with extra school supplies to Greyson's school discreetly at the beginning of the school year.  We dropped it off with the guidance office as a just-in-case another student would need it at anytime during the school year. 

 

October: Our kids, along with my fourth and fifth grade CCD students participated in the Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF program and collected over $53 dollars collectively! 

November: I participated in Giving Tuesday by getting my Spanish I classes involved!  We spent a little time each Tuesday of the month talking about an orphanage,el Hogar de ninos Emanuel, in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.  Some of the students brought in donations for the children and on Giving Tuesday, we spent our class periods writing holiday cards & letters in Spanish to the kids.  It gave my students a chance to showcase all the Spanish they've learned so far all year while also doing something kind for kids they may never meet in their life.  I'll be giving the letters and donated items to a former classmate (thanks Amber!) and they'll make their way to Honduras before the holiday with the next group of volunteers. 

December: Start the 'white envelope' gift tradition in our home.  Brandon is in charge of this one all on his own and I can't wait to see what he comes up with.  Since starting his new job, we are really sticking to our budget and so we've started with a dollar amount of zero in the White Envelope giving box on our Christmas budget.  So, I've been searching for coupons and codes to get our holiday shopping done, and each time I'm able to save a few dollars somewhere, I've been moving the savings down into the giving area - and so far we're up to $30 dollars!  

We also did some kindness that isn't officially on our 12mokp list: 

I worked closely with the CV Alumni Association (Brandon and my high school alma mater). We helped put together an amazing night to honor a longtime #1 fan of the school, I also helped organize alumni-led talks with high school seniors, and an alumni intramural group which included a summertime kickball league and a one-night cornhole tournament, both to raise funds towards supporting the high school.  (and our annual Alumni Human Library event is coming up later this month - our 3rd annual!) 

We ran in races that supported some great causes - like the Bunny Race that supported a local school district with our friends The Stahl family.  Brandon and Greyson ran in the Little Indian Color Run to support Greyson's school's PTA, and Grey and I ran in the Great Santa Race just recently to support the Wings of Hope organization. 

 

Speaking of races, we also spent the afternoon supporting runners in the Path of the Flood Race in May by creating inspirational signs, sidewalk cheering, and offer high fives.  We stationed ourselves in a spot that was a little less than 3 miles from the finish line, so the look of relief and instant-recharge in the runner's eyes at our signs and clapping was awesome.  

 The kids and I attend our local Empty Bowls event that was put on by a high school key club to help battle hunger in our community.  We treated it like a little date a few weeks before our newest baby arrived and the kids to this day still love using their own special pottery bowls that we picked out at the event.  Each time we use them we're reminded that so many people are not as blessed to have bowls as full as ours.

We try to give kindness out in little sporadic doses, things like leaving treat bags and notes for our mail lady, and offering homemade muffins and cookies to Greyson's bus driver (who is always so patient with our habitual lateness!) 

We also try to participate in small events that come up as best as we can when we hear about them.  We donated to The Big White Farmhouse Ashley's annual Pajama drive to support kids in need during these cold winter months.  I also offer my time towards the Needy Children's Shopping Tour to act as a chaperone while the kids get a chance to 'buy' much needed clothes and winter accessories for the holidays.  And as soon as I was able to again (postpartum) I started donating blood again. Did you know you can safely give blood every eight weeks?  And it's free! I usually take at least one kids along with me (and once this year I brought all four kids with me!) and they call it "when Mumma gets her blood out." I'll be able to give again one more time before the end of the year!  (ps. We're also registered organ donors and on the bone marrow registry list). 

And we have our monthly financial commitments to both Oxfam America, which works together with partners and locally in more than 90 countries to empower people living in poverty.  And to World Vision in our sponsorship of our sweet child, Raph who lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  We just recently received our yearly check in update of Raph and he is doing great in school and is getting so big (he's six just like Greyson)! 

The point of all of this - of this dedication to leaving goodness in our trail as we walk through each year is in hopes to inspire kindness, empathy, and goodness in these children of ours.  Our hope is to raise children who have kindness and empathy as their knee-jerk reaction.  To believe that kindness is not only the best choice but also a responsiblity.  That every smile, every kind gesture is the way in which they can make an impact in the world in a positive way. 

And that world can be scary and terrifying - and it has felt especially so this year, and I don't have any expectations to change the world.  This was our whole year squished down into this one post and it sure feels good to see it all together, feels like we've really done some things this year - but know I also know that I am only one momma on this one mountain in this one state of this one country in the whole world.  Only one writer in this one tiny space on the whole wide internet.  

But we really do believe in kindness and the power of empathy, and so we keep going forward in our 12 Months of Kindness Project to keep our hearts and minds focused on the blessings in our life.

be kind, friends. 

sending love to you always. 

xxoxo

12 Months of Kindness: 2016

We really enjoyed our 12 Months of Kindness last year; it seemed that in the 7 years that we've been committing to the project, that we finally had a great fit for our family in all the tasks.  Last year, we were able to finish all tasks (with one change to November's task) and they were manageable for us in both time and financially.  I wanted to work from some of our tasks from last year, but also build upon them this year to really allow opportunities for the kids to be involved more as they are getting a little older.

To create our 2016 list, Brandon and I looked at last year's list and discussed the things that really worked well and then I also headed to pinterest (kindness pinboard, 12 Months of Kindness board) to look for new projects that might work well for us this year.

As in each year's planning, we make sure to factor in certain events that we know are coming in the  year and might limit (or enhance) opportunities for giving back.  For example, this year, we had to consider that we're expecting a new baby in June and so I wanted the task to be both reflective of that celebration in our lives, and easy for the kids to do by themselves with a little supervision.

So, it is with excitement that we can share our 2016 12 Months of Kindness Project
(#12mokp on instagram and 12 Months of Kindness Project on facebook)

January:  Create and deliver blessing bags to St. Vincent's
February:  Give some love to a classroom through Donors Choose
March:  volunteer time at the Johnstown Backpack Project to create weekend meal bags for local students in need
April:  Purchase and deliver Baby & Mom supplies to our local YWCA
May:  Select and award our 8th Studer Scholarship to CV seniors
June: Create and deliver Birthday Boxes to our local food pantry/soup kitchen
July:  Host the 8th annual Studer's Invitational Beer Olympics
August:  Purchase and donate needed supplies to our local Humane Society (visit with the animals!)
September:  Talk with our school and donate extra school supplies and backpack for students in need
October:  Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF
November:  participate in Giving Tuesday
December:  Start the 'white envelope' gift tradition in our home


Our 12 Months of Kindness tasks listed above, are the twelve big tasks that we do for each month in the year.  As I've said a million times before, it is so very important that we plan them ahead of time for each month and leave the tasks posted in a high traffic area in our home (our kitchen fridge) so that we are constantly reminded of them because the chaos and busy of life tries so hard to keep us distracted.  Even with them planned out and posted, sometimes we find ourselves at the end of a particular busy month scrambling to finish a task, because life...for real, guys.

Besides our commitment to these 12 tasks, we also try to find small ways to give out generously and kindly throughout the year too as we can in our time, talents, and financially.  Some of these ways include:

• we sponsor Raph from the Democratic Republic of Congo through WorldVision
• we sign up and participate in local runs/races that support a cause
• we contribute to GoFundMe requests from family and friends
• I donate blood and try to encourage my family and friends to donate too
• we deliver little messages and snacks to our mail carrier randomly
• we participate with our local Family Service Club group with their projects
• we participate with our high school alumni organization on projects that benefit the students and community
• we donate half of our trick-or-treat candy to Operation Gratitude to the troops
• we choose Christmas gifts that matter (through Oxfam America and WorldVision)
• we deliver homemade holiday cookies to our neighbors (Christmas, but sometimes for Valentines day and Halloween too)
• Above all, we strive to react with kindness and patience in all situation...with each other, our family, friends, and strangers

Are you committing to 12 Months of Kindness this year?  What kinds of ways do you give back each year?  Are there service projects that have worked especially well with your kids?  I'm always interested in hearing about how other families incorporate giving and kindness into their life!

12 Months of Kindness 2015 Recap

We finished out our 7th year of 12 Months of Kindness in 2015.  It has truly become part of what our family does together.  It's incredible though how even after seven years, it is still so important to write it down and plan what we are going to do each month.  As the kids grow and our family grows (!) and we all become more involved in activities - it seems even more necessary than ever to make sure we have a plan already for what we'll do each month, otherwise, our acts of kindness would be too easily swallowed up in the regular fast-moving stream of family life.

In 2015, our plans for each month seemed to be the most aligned with what we reasonably could accomplish, as a family of five to three very young kids.  We re-aligned our original plan only in one month (November), changing up the goal with something that was a little easier to orchestrate between the holidays, kids, and expecting number studerbaby#4!

January: made a meal and dessert, delivered, and visited with a new mom friend after the arrival of her first baby
February:  anonymously paid for a meal of an elderly couple at a restaurant
March:  served a meal at the Winder Area Community Kitchen
April:  mailed a care package to our WorldVision sponsor child Raph in Democratic Republic of Congo
May:  7th year awarding our Studer Scholarship to two CV high school seniors based on their essays about their positive influence and contribution to the school and community.
June:  organized the 2nd annual CV Alumni Association 5K and family fun run
July:  organized and hosted the 7th annual Beer Olympics, fundraising for a family friend who's child is a cancer warrior.
August:  dropped of a donation of goods at our local Humane Society
September:  volunteered an evening packing weekend food bags for students in need with the Johnstown Backpack Project
October:  participated in Trick-Or-Treat for UNICEF as a family and with my 5th grade CCD class
November:  volunteered three hours to help a child in need at the Needy Children Shopping Tour where I helped the child select clothes, a winter coat, and other necessary items for the winter.
December:  volunteered as a family for 8 hours to ring the bell for the Salvation Army on #GivingTuesday

We were also lucky to join an amazing group this year that a dear friend and inspiration started for young families looking to give back.  It's called the Family Service Club (FSC) Johnstown.  Each month ideas and opportunities are posted that are family friendly to give back and act out in kindness.  Through the FSC-Johnstown this year, we helped pack hygiene kits for the Johnstown Backpack Project, donated extra Halloween trick-or-treating candy to servicemen and women abroad through Operation Gratitude, and were inspired to bake cookies and thank you notes for our local first responders. (Thank you Megan for organizing this group!)

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We are working now on compiling our 12 Months of Kindness 2016 list and will be sharing it by next week.  We are still in the planning phase though and would love to hear about any activities that you participated in this past year that might inspire this year's acts of kindness - please share!

7 ways to be a caretaker of the good in the world.

This post has been brewing for a few weeks in my heart and mind.  In my life,  there have been plenty of times that I have felt defeated or overwhelmed by negativity.  That I felt like saying, 'why do I even try?!' But through these seven steps, I have always been able to find a way back to kindness; to let kindness and empathy be my guiding star.  And, as if I've said it once I've said it a thousand times, being kind and grateful are the roots of who I want to be, of how we hope to raise our kids, of how we hope to influence the world.

I am determined to be a caretaker of the good in the world, will you too?

1. DO good.
The get-your-hands-dirty good.  The put-your-time-in-good.  The check you send annually to a charity you support or the child you sponsor is amazing and necessary.  This is important good, please keep up your support.  But don't forget to participate in good through physical acts.  Build something, make something, pack something up, go out and meet people.  This is the kind of good that will keep you inspired to see how much your good is needed, AND (sometimes even more importantly) how much good is already happening when you weren't looking directly at it.

2. Find the kind of good that feels natural to you.
This isn't selfish good, this is practical and powerful.  We are each good at different kinds of things in life, so it's natural that certain kinds of good deeds or volunteering feel easier for you, simply because it's in your wheelhouse.

I enjoy planning, so being the coordinator for volunteer events doesn't feel like work, but for someone else that level of involvement might be overwhelming or stressful.  I have a close friend who can whip up dinner for someone in need like it's no big deal, for me though, this kind of giving leaves me all stressed about having the right ingredients and always running too late to actually deliver it to the person!?  Obviously, stepping out of your comfort zone is valuable experience, but don't be afraid to keep doing what works too.  You'll be more likely to keep doing what feels natural because it won't feel like work.  What the world needs is the good that YOU can provide joyfully and frequently.

3. Smile.
This is a universal language that transcends all ages.  Don't wait for the other person to smile, be the one to make the first move.  Wave at your neighbors, say hello to the little kid who is staring at you in the check out line, be a stranger that you'd like to meet.  And don't give me any of that 'resting b*tch face stuff, we all should be focusing more on making our Smile Reaction Time quicker anyway.

4. Clean up your digital INput.
The internet is a sneaky little beast and you know what it's really good at? Trying to understand each of us and our habits.  So if you're clicking on, liking, commenting, or sharing certain kinds of things, those kinds of things are going to keep showing up for you to see.  See, the internet thinks it's being helpful, but what it's really doing is keeping us plugged into a one-sided view.  If you are depressed by the state of the world, it might be because you are only seeing one side of the world.  There are good, inspiring, amazing things happening, but you have to know how to look for them.

Four steps to clean up your digital Input: 
1. First things first, clean up that newsfeed!  Click on that little arrow in the left upper corner of a status and hide the things that make you frustrated.
2. 'Like' happy, inspiring pages (SoulPancake, BrightSide, Humans of New York, UpWorthy, TED, Kid President) and also local businesses, events, and groups to add a positive boost to your newsfeed (follow things that make you feel inspired on all social media: twitter, instagram, blogs, etc).
3. Know what's going on by keeping up to date with the news, but you don't need to sit on the edge of your seat for the seventh update to the 'if it bleeds it leads' stories.
4. UNPLUG all together occasionally; frequently!  Go outside, look people in the face. Just get away from the input entirely for awhile.

5. Clean up your digital OUTput
What was it that all of our mommas told us, 'If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.' That lesson still applies to adulthood, friends.  Recognize that as someone who posts to the internet via any method, you are a contributor to everyone else's digital input.  Are you posting and sharing messages that contribute to the good that's in the world?  Are you someone that gripes about being tired of only ever hearing about a big, bad, scary world?  Take ownership that your shares also contribute to what we all see.

Understand and respect the fact that complaining never, in the history of the universe, actually solved any problems.  Complaining about something does not lead to making it better, complaining about it frustrates and hurts the people that are already doing something.  If you want something to be better, go try to make it better.

6. Give people grace.
When it comes to ourselves, we expect everyone to extend to us the benefit of the doubt: we are in fact a regular person with flaws and who makes mistakes, so we expect other people to turn a blind eye when we are not our best selves.

But often times when it comes to other people, especially strangers, we expect their finished, polished version.  If you find yourself getting ready to judge someone else's behavior, stop and repeat this phrase in your mind, 'I actually know nothing about this person.' We don't know what their day has been like, what their life has been like, how they were raised, or what they've suffered or had to endure, what they're worried about.  Ya know, granted, maybe this person really is just a horrible human being, but in my experience, that's incredibly unlikely.

Just like us, they're a regular person with flaws, and who makes mistakes, and who has had a million experiences similar and radically different in life than we have had.  A good thing to do in these situations is to be patient and offer a smile.  The best thing to do is to ask if they need help.

7. Do good anyway.
When it feels too big, too scary, too sad, too frustrating to continue to be vigilant to the good in the world, look for the good anyway; do the good anyway.  There have been times in my life that while I was in the middle of an act of kindness, a person made me feel so small and unimportant.  Maybe because they belittled the value of what I was doing, or because they criticized the way I had done it.  Regardless, it hurts, it makes blood boil, it makes you feel like screaming, "Why do I even try at all!?"

Secure this resolution deep inside of your heart so that when the going gets tough or frustrating, you can come back to it again and cling to it:  No matter how negative it all may get 'out there,' within my own small area of the world I will tend to kindness so that it reflects a world I dream about.  Maybe your small area of the world is your home, your family, your office desk, your corner of the web, your own heart and mind.

YOU can choose to be kind.  I hope you will.  And I will too.  And in this way, we can each be caretakers of the good that is in this world.

i choose love.

hi.

it's me.
I'm still here.
it's just that sometimes when the world gets too big.
and too ugly
and too many lines get drawn in the sand.
that i tend to shrink back into my own little physical world.

not because i'm afraid,
but because I know that this is where I can affect real change.
right here,
this is where i can do the most good.
to my kids.
to my family.
to my friends.
in this little part of the world that I am physically in.

I can push out kindness and peace and love and from here it can,
will,
must
(please)
ripple out to all corners of the big world.

i sat and cried, hard cried; tears streaming down my face with my hand over my mouth so as not to wake my two napping girls because of a line from law & order SVU this week.
in the show, a former child solider of the LRA had cried out in a church that God had forsaken him,
"Is He deaf to our suffering?"

and i cried, and cried, and cried.

so much suffering.
real suffering.

and that's not to belittle anyone's current state of suffering in the whole range of what constitutes as suffering that runs far and wide.

I know it's not the perfect way to go about life; looking at suffering through the lens that some suffering is greater than others.  But in the blessed world where i operate that many people's greatest suffering (mine included) on a daily basis is a slow driver in front of us when we are in a hurry-- the enormity of the disproportion of suffering presses down on my chest as a constant reminder to be grateful.

To always be grateful in this life of mine that, if I'm being completely honest with myself, is at worst, slightly annoying.

mostly, i resolve to never be so afraid of something bad happening to me, that it blinds me from seeing the people who are suffering from the bad thing that actually  is happening to them.

so i turn in.
to my kids.
to my family.
to my friends.
and we talk about love, and empathy and kindness.
and we show each other love and empathy and kindness.
and act out of love and empathy and kindness in all things that we do.

because this is the only way that i know how to spread good.
by doing the good.

it is not through shares, and likes, and comments.

it's in the loving.
it's in the compassion and empathy.
it's in the doing.

we can live our life in fear or with love.
and i choose love.

12 Months of Kindness Mid-Year update

Kindness and giving back is fundamental to our family and one of the ways that we try to keep that in the forefront of our minds and hearts is to commit to a task of kindness, (at least) once for each month of the year.  The important piece about 12 Months of Kindness is making sure that you plan out and/or track  your efforts each month.  Otherwise (as we've found in the past), it's easy to forget about your dedication by the end of the year...because you know, life.

Here is where we stand now at the mid-year point in our 12 Months of Kindness commitment.  First quarter of the year update.

January - it took us until March (!) for Violet and I to finish up our January kindness when we headed east to visit a high school friend who had recently had her first baby (hi Renee and Ava!) to visit for a little while and drop off dinner and dessert.  It was a great visit and I loved catching up and talking about all things newborn and new momma.

April - the kids and I put together a special care package to send all the way to the Democratic Republic of Congo to Raph, our WorldVision sponsor kid.  The kids worked hard on drawing colorful pictures and letters for him and we stuff that envelope full of pencils, erasers, toothbrushes, colored pencils, and stickers.

May - Gemma accompanied me to the Conemaugh Valley Senior banquet in May to award our family scholarship to two deserving twelfth graders.  We have students complete an essay explaining the positive impact they believe they've had while attending Valley and we've selected scholarship recipients for the last seven years! This year, Brandon and I selected Kaitlynn and Becca.  Our scholarship is one of my favorite kindness tasks and I so appreciate getting a peek into the lives of young people into our community and all the good that they do!

June - I led the efforts with the amazing help of the Conemaugh Valley Alumni Association to put on the second annual 5K and family fun run/walk in June.  This year we had a blue and white theme and a scavenger hunt for the family portion.  The 5K begins early in the morning, followed later by the family fun run/walk scavenger hunt.  We had several 5K runners even return to walk the trail again with their families.  As always, this event reminds me how lucky I am to have supportive people in my life ready to help and volunteer wherever they are needed.  This CV community has something very special and this event was another reminder of that.

If you're seeking some inspiration, check out my Kindness Pinboard here, or the 12 Months of Kindness Pinboard here that I collaborate on with Ashley from The Big White Farmhouse.

There are also amazing opportunities in your own local community if you keep you eyes and ears open for it.  I recently joined the Family Service Group - Johnstown, PA (thank you, Megan!) in which projects and ideas are presented each month that are geared specifically towards families with kids.  This month we are saying thank you to our local heroes (firemen, police departments, EMS teams, etc).

Also, you can check out:
12 Months of Kindness 2015 intro post
#12mokp (on instagram)

7th Annual Studer's Invitational Beer Olympics

We held our 7th Annual Studer's Invitational Beer Olympics at our home this past weekend.  We were lucky to have beautiful weather and a great turn out of participants, refs, and observers.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again and again - we could not do this event without the generosity, good nature, and kindness of the people that participate.  Beer Olympics is like a holiday around here.

We spend a few weeks prior to the day planning, organizing, taking inventory, and preparing.  There are shirts to be ordered, waivers and rules to be updated and printed, rsvps to collect, and a winner plaque to be engraved and added to our Champion trophy stand.

This year because we had several long time veteran players unable to participate (we missed you!), we tried out a new strategy and had Every Man for Himself scoring and play for the day.  We were still able to play the same team events, but we switched up the teams before every event and scored by individual player versus by team.  

As in years past, we limited our participants to 32 people so that we have no more than 8 teams of four. As part of Beer Olympics prep, I created thirty-two slips of paper with a team color listed on it (four papers per each color) and put them in a container. Before each game, participants pulled their new team color, applied appropriate face paint, and met their new teammates.

Our first event is always a Beer Pong tournament played with House rules.  After the first round of standard play (20 cup per each side of the table), we finish out the tournament by winners and losers brackets in two rounds of Hungry Hungry HipPong.   Points were given to each person based on their teams' overall performance.  (ie. each person on Red team personally earned first place points as overall winners for the event).

Personal scores were added to the scoreboard and players received new team assignments and re-painted their faces as necessary.

Our second event is our Dingbat Relay (similar to Dizzy Bat) and is generally hilarious and pure mayhem.  All refs eyes were on the game, so we don't have any camera footage of the event, however there is some incredible GoPro footage. My Mom, acting as a ref, who was seated in the chair that players had to round had an unfortunate run in with two of the participants as they tried to push past each other at the turn around.  All three of them and the chair and the GoPro went crashing to the ground in a hilarious heap of cursing and laughing. The GoPro footage is amazing.  Thanks Momma for taking one for the day!

We followed Dingbat Relay with a challenge opportunity:  Keg Stands.  Challenges are optional and are geared toward participants who are seeking opportunities to earn a couple extra points.  Keg Stands were worth four points, limited to only one, and set to a certain time limit (10 seconds for males, 7 for females) and position (upside down and right side up)

Teams were changed up again, and then it was on to Ice Cube Tray Canoe Races.  The views on this game are widely diverse across the players, some love it, some just accept it, other's despise it.  We play this game as only winners move on to the next round (One Loss and Done), and the first round is a full tray, subsequent rounds are only a half tray.

Personal scores calculated again and it was on to Slippy Cup.  We added vegetable oil this year to the Slip 'n Slide (an old pool cover) and it was hugely successful for speed and hilarity.  Slippy Cup is completed in four heats (eight participants at a time).  Player's chug, flip, run, slide, run, chug, flip, sit as fast as they can.  Slippy Cup is a player favorite. 

Our last event before the intermission is always Anchorman because, well quite honestly, everyone needs a break after Anchorman.  Each team is given a pitcher of 2 Liters of Beer and at the whistle each team begins drinking.  Once the pitcher is passed to the next player, it cannot be passed back.  The final player (the Anchorman) has to finish whatever is left in the pitcher.  The key here is not speed, but rather distribution of beer among the whole team.  Regardless of how much players 'think' they drank from the pitcher - it seems the Anchorman is always left with a daunting amount of beer to finish.  

Intermission gives everyone a chance to grab some delicious food from the garage (everyone brings something to share potluck style) and hydrate appropriately with water and Gatorade.  Our intermission generally lasts between 45 minutes to an hour depending on how people appear to be recovering. 

Following intermission, new teams were assigned again and we eased back into the events with Flip Cup tournament style with winning and losing brackets.  Flip Cup is a great equalizing game that doesn't need particular brawn or strength to complete it - so we play three variations of it throughout the day! 

Bong Races are a staple from our very first Beer Olympics.  We play Bong Races like Ice Cube Tray Canoe Races where only the winning teams move on to the next round.

Our newest challenge this year was Blow Ball which turned out to be absolutely hilarious and will definitely be returning as a challenge in the future.  (thank you BarMeister) .  Players could challenge one another for an extra +2 points to the winner.  With their chin on the table, the players tried to blow a ping pong ball off the opposite side of the table using only their breath.  If the ball fell off your side of the table, you lost.  Loser received no points and had to drink.

Survivor Flip Cup is one of my personal favorites because it's high action, is a great equalizer for all players, and as one of our players mentioned on Saturday, "Why do you get punished for winning in this game!?"  Eight players to a table and at the whistle everyone chugs and flips until they succeed, last one to flip gets 'kicked off the table.' Winners move on again and again until there is only one survivor.  Points are given by order of being kicked off the table (thanks again for the inspiration Canfield Beer Olympics!) 

With three empty kegs, two challenges and eight events completed, things understandably tend to fall off the deep end at this point in the day.

Players have one last chance to a challenge event, Chug Offs, in which they can challenge another player to a chugging contest (their choice to amount of beer).  First person to chug and flip their empty cup upside down on their head earns +3 points. 

 
Our final event this year was called Last Man Standing and had nothing to do with drinking beer (not that anyone really needed it anyway at this point).  We filled up two cups per person with water and had everyone hold their arms up and out for as long as they could (or felt like it).  As players dropped out (from boredom or need, we'll never know), the list of players were weaned down to only ten left and I announced how many points each person would receive for each drop out from 6 points to 24 points to the Last Man Standing!

This game took longer than I expected, close to 15 minutes, and there was a lot of moaning, groaning, and meditation happening as everyone's arms and shoulders ached.  It literally came down to the Last (wo)Man standing!

A short intermission follows all the events as the totals were calculated for each player and nominations for our awards were completed.  The awards ceremony is always hilarious and received with enough cheering you'd think it was actually more than a simple sash that players were earning for their performance.

Finally, we announced our highest scoring participants who make up our champion team for 2015:  The Survivors.  Celebrations all around as the four took the first drinks from our Studer Torpedo while Queen's We are the Champions blasted from the stereo system.

Hosting our Beer Olympic event takes a lot of work from planning, organizing, and to preparing our home and yard for the day but we do it because we love it and are so very grateful that we have so many wonderfully kind and generous friends in our life to share the day with us.

We've been laughing the past two days about how so many different branches of our life are represented at the day. In what universe is Brandon's high school football teammate challenging my sister's friend's boyfriend to a game of blow ball?  In what universe are my sister's sister in law, my other sister's friend's fiance, the cousin of the kid I used to babysit, and my college teammate's boyfriend all on the same beer pong team?  Only in Beer Olympics Universe, people.

 Seriously, the day shines a spotlight on all the best and brightest spots of our life, most of the times in no other way connected to each other and we are so grateful to all of you.  thank you, thank you, thank you.

Besides our Beer Olympics being an amazingly fun day with friends new and old, it is also for a good cause.  After costs, all proceeds are donated to a cause of our selection for the year and we are proud to say that we raised $205 to support baby Redden in his fight against cancer.  You can read more about Redden and his journey at his website here.

You can see all of our past Beer Olympic events here.

And to cover our own behinds:
- Team Studer (www.studerteam.blogspot.com or Tabitha and Brandon Studer) is not responsible for anyone's actions after following or using our Beer Olympic rules & guidelines. Each person is responsible for his/her own body and personal decisions. If you decide to use our Beer Olympics rules & guidelines, you are agreeing to take full responsibility for any actions, accidents, or injuries that may be caused due to using them. Don't be stupid- but if you are, it's on you, man.

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Logistics for Every Man for Himself Scoring:
Depending on how a player's team for that specific event performed, they each earned that allotment of points for themselves.   Our scoreboard including all the games and challenges as columns and each participant's name as rows.

Before the start of the event, I scribbled down each team member by team color and then used that list to determine points at the end of the game based on the overall team performance.  (It was actually a lot easier than I was anticipating).

During Anchorman, each person earned the team's points for their place in finishing, but the actual Anchorman for each team automatically earned an extra +3 pointstowards their score because their job sucks.  hahh

Some events like Slippy Cup and Survivor Flip Cup wasn't a team event, but I still had players assigned to a color team because it made it easier for them to figure out which heat or table they should participate in during the game.  Even though it was an individual event, it was easier to say - one person from each 'team' needs to be at each table - or needs to participate in each heat of Slippy Cup.

Overall, the Every Man for Himself process worked really well for the day.  Participants seemed to enjoy the pressure of earning their own points and it gave a really great foundation for everyone meeting more people than just their own teams.  Jury's out on whether or not this will be the new standard moving forward, but we had a great time switching it up this year!