Are you stuck for events to run during Chappy Week? Well, read on to hear some great ideas!
For some chaplains and LCCs, it can be daunting to plan events to celebrate Chappy Week. Maybe
you’re struggling for ideas or don’t even know where to begin. If that’s you, then here are some suggestions from an experienced chaplain to help you out!
Stephanie Kennedy, from Wellers Hill SS, has been a chaplain for more than 9 years, and over that time, she’s organised many different events to commemorate Chappy Week.
Stephanie has tried it all. Jelly Bean competitions… getting students to donate money to ‘bail out’ the school deputy from a makeshift ‘prison’… organising an ‘Are You Smarter than a School Kid?’ competition… running lunchtime discos… the list could go on.
But initially, Stephanie says she wasn’t too keen to run Chappy Week events. “I felt quite uncomfortable being the focus of a week at school. The self-promoting idea doesn’t really appeal to me. But I understood that it’s useful for fundraising and raising awareness of the [chaplaincy] role,” she says.
“I started the events on a small scale – the first year, I don’t think I even knew about Chappy Week! It started very low key, but then I started to realise that I should be doing more.”
After many years of trial and error, Chappy Stephanie began to see a ‘winning formula’ for her Chappy Week events:
- Something with high visibility at the centre of the school
- Something that lasts the whole week, so students and parents don’t miss it
- A competition aspect between classes or students
- Incorporate light-hearted ‘humiliation’ of a high-profile staff member to create good will
Here are some events that Stephanie has run – hopefully they’ll inspire you in your preparations for Chappy Week next month:
TEACHER PHOTO BOARD
“One year, we created a photo board of some teachers with their baby photos. We had a competition to see if kids could guess what baby photos belonged to which teachers. As a fundraiser, it was a fairly big flop, but it did cause a little bit of interest and discussion. People were aware that the photo board was there for the week, but it was pretty low key.”
PLAIN CLOTHES DAY
“Near the beginning of my time as a chaplain, we did a Plain Clothes Day. ‘C’ in the first letter of ‘chaplaincy’ and ‘C’ is also the first letter of ‘colourful’, so students were encouraged to wear something colourful for Chappy Week. It was a gold coin donation, and was a pretty easy way to raise a few hundred dollars.”
STAFF MORNING TEA
“Each year, I do a morning tea for staff. I get lots of people from my supporting churches to bake, and I put on a special morning tea to say ‘thank you’ to staff and acknowledge what a valuable asset they are to the school. It creates a lot of good will. I find that the staff actually make donations too.”
DEPUTY PRISONER BAIL-OUT
“About 4 or 5 years ago, our deputy principal Mr White, volunteered to be ‘jailed’ for the entire Chappy Week. He dressed in a striped prisoner’s outfit, and spent before school, lunch breaks and after school in a fenced-off area in the middle of the school. He slept at the school every night that week – he could not have been more supportive. In the fenced area, he had a camp stretcher and a desk – at lunch time, the kids would just sit around and watch him. When he’d get up to go from the desk to the bed, they’d say, “Oh look, he’s moving!” It was hilarious.”
“There were two buckets for kids to donate money – one bucket was to bail him out of jail, and the other was to keep him in jail. It created such a buzz because it was highly visible, and he was the deputy! We raised about $9,000 that year, compared to $200 the previous year. It was wildly popular – parents were coming into the school because they couldn’t believe what was happening. The good will that was generated was amazing. On Friday, we had our final parade, and the school captains led Mr White into parade by a rope. The announcement was made that enough money had been made to bail him out.”
“We made buckets of money and we couldn’t believe it. Mr White felt that people had seen the value of the chaplaincy role, and they had been waiting for an opportunity to support the invaluable work done by the chaplain.”
DEPUTY ‘MYSTERY’ DRESS-UP
“One year, we organised a pizza party for the class that donated the most money. During Chappy Week, I laid out coloured containers for every class, and students could donate money into their class buckets. We had a little graph displayed, so kids could see what progress each class was making. Every day, when the graph was updated, there would be a crowd of kids around, just watching.”
“To make it more visible, and to add the ‘good will’ humiliation twist, we said at the end of the week, the deputy would announce the winning class on parade wearing a ‘mystery’ costume. The deputy would also have to go pick up the pizzas dressed in the costume.”
Every day, we had a different big two-metre painting of Mr White wearing a different costume… one day he was Superman, the next he was Little Red Riding Hood, or Minnie Mouse, or Shrek. It built anticipation, as students were guessing what Mr White would come dressed as on parade.
“He ended up wearing a pink fairy costume, complete with football socks and his beard. I drove him in that costume to the pizza place to pick up the pizzas. We made about $9,500.”
‘KISS-A-PIG’ COMPETITION
“Another year, we set up two little pigs at school for the whole week. They were in the middle of the school, in an undercover area, in a trailer filled with hay. I got about 15 staff members to volunteer to be the one who might have to ‘kiss a pig’ on parade on Friday. I took their photos and printed large copies to be displayed all week. Under each photo was a bucket with that teacher’s name, so the kids could nominate which teacher they wanted to kiss the pig. The money rolled in because there was an element of competition about it. We took the pigs home every night and made sure they were very comfortable in someone’s garage.”
“But that was really high maintenance and high risk, and I’d probably never do it again! It all turned out fine, and we made nearly $10,000, but we did it the hard way.”
‘ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A SCHOOL KID?’
“Last year, we ran an ‘Are You Smarter than a School Kid?’ competition. Whichever class donated the most money during Chappy Week got a pizza party, and three representatives from the winning class got to compete against our deputy at parade on the Friday. They had to answer question to see who was the smartest – Mr White or the school kids. Of course, Mr White lost.”
LUNCHTIME DISCOS
“The last few years, I’ve also run lunchtime discos during the week. The lower school has a disco on one day, and the upper school on another day. It’s a gold coin donation to enter and dance their hearts out for half an hour. You can make a few hundred dollars quite easily – you just need teacher supervision, some music, a hall, and someone at the door to take money.”
JELLY BEAN COMPETITION
“I also run a jelly bean counting competition each year, which usually brings in a couple hundred dollars. It’s amazing to see the number of kids who are dying to win those jelly beans. They bring their parents to the jar and beg them to have another 3 guesses. It’s another activity that creates anticipation, excitement, good will, and the chance to connect with kids and their families through the week. “
“Last year so many kids wanted to win that prize so, as a joke, we had two of our Year 7 boys dress up as security men. They ushered the jelly beans into parade with walkie talkies to the ‘mission impossible’ music. They stood guard on either side with their sunglasses on, all dressed in black. It was a lot of fun!”
DONATION ENVELOPES
“We’ve also sent home chaplaincy support envelopes to all of the families in the school the week before Chappy Week. Some parents might have missed the opportunity to take part in Chappy Week, so it gives them the opportunity to make a donation if they want to. The tax deductibility aspect seems to be an added incentive for some, especially coming so close to the end of the financial year.”