Outdoor Movie Night

Who: Everyone!

Objective: Mingle, Fellowship, entertainment, good low-pressure activity to invite non-member friends too!

Budget: $10 for popcorn

Flyer:

Set-Up: A neighbor has a huge backyard with some out buildings and granted us the request to host our activity. The new activity chairperson donated the popcorn from her food storage as she had quite a bit of it.

A white sheet was hung in front of a garage door to one of the out-buildings and that became the "movie screen". A member of the ward had an LCD projector that was then hooked up to a laptop. A large speaker was also hooked up to the laptop and the DVD was played from the laptop.

Popcorn was popped ahead of time and placed in large bowls with little scoops. Brown paper lunch sacks were set out so movie-goers could fill up their own popcorn. Ice water was also provided.

Special Instructions: We were invited to arrive no earlier than 8pm to set up our chairs and blankets while we could still see :) It was announced the movie would start at dusk, around 9pm. The popcorn would be provided, but we could bring other treats from home if we wanted.

The selected movie was one that had been previewed at another local outdoor movie night. It was a local independent film and therefore we were able to obtain permission ahead of time to show the movie to a non-profit church group. Many places are not particular with this, so long as you are not making money off of the event. It also helped that the movie was being shown at someone's residence as it then fell into the category of "home viewing".

Crayons were set out along with the popcorn bags, so before dusk the kids colored on their bags and wrote their names on them. This helped to keep them entertained. The adults enjoyed sitting and visiting with each other.

Also, in the activity closet were found some 3-legged-race bands from a ward camp-out several years ago. So, while waiting for the sun to set, several joined in the 3-legged-race. They had a lot of fun.

Turn-Out: There were 46 people in attendance. And because the popcorn was donated and we already had a supply of paper sacks in the closet, we ended up spending $0 on the activity.