A few years ago my wife and I were able to do something we had dreamed of for years, we moved close to a high school and started hosting club. You can read about this in a previous post. Before we hosted our very first club (all area club with 200 kids in our back yard, which ruined all my plants by the way), my genius wife talked to some other people with experience hosting club and came up with a plan.
She wrote hand-written notes on stationary and put it in a gift bag that included earplugs, snickers bars, a bottle of soap, and candy. She wrote "Good, clean fun!" on the soap bottle with a sharpie on the back. She knew it was cheesy but it helped keep the tone fun. Then my wife, our kids and I went door-to-door and delivered them. We actually only talked to two people, the rest were not home so we left them on the doorsteps.
This is the note she wrote:
Dear Neighbor,
I wanted to let you know that we will be having about 100-200 high school kids over to our house on Monday evening from about 6:45-8:45. We are involved with Young Life, a Christian outreach to high school kids, and will be meeting here. We’ll have music, games, skits, and a message to help kids think through what life is all about. Things can get pretty loud, and I want to thank you in advance for your patience and understanding while we help kids enjoy some good, clean fun. We hope you’ll "Snicker" with us as we take time to play and laugh with high school kids. Please feel free to call me right away if you have any problems with kids’ parking or noise or if you have any questions! My cell phone number is ______. We are committed to kids and want to be good neighbors as well. Thanks again for your understanding!
Erin and Sean McGever
I realize some people have nightmare stories about club and angry neighbors (not the skit, but actual angry neighbors). Most of our neighbors have had the attitude that they are glad to be "helping the kids" by putting up with the parking and noise. They would rather them be at our house singing than running around getting into trouble or something.
What has been your experience? Any tips or stories out there?
2 thoughts on “Neighbors and Club at Your House”
Sean, thx for these great thoughts. such a helpful idea. drew
Ironically last Monday a neighbor came over to our house angry because of kids honking their horns, peeling out in their cars and booming their music as they leave club. I’ll be having a chat with our kids in club next week!