Organizers from the Pelham-based WyldLife of Lower Westchester hope to create a mess this afternoon that no amount of Tide, Clorox or Zout will be able to get rid of.
The local WyldLife club, which was created earlier this school year, is ending the year with its "Mess Fest" during the Y2Y club’s annual barbecue on the lawn of the , located on 1415 Pelhamdale Ave in Pelham.
The “Mess Fest” is an assortment of games, including Twister, that rely on mustard, ketchup and other messy liquid that is available for enhancement.
“The "Mess Fest" is an organized food fight,” Stephanie Raubenheimer, a staff member of Young Life. “We use condiments and other things that are going to be messy. We don’t want to engage in the wasting of food, so we use things like mustard and water balloons. We use things that we can easily clean up of the ground after we’re done.”
Young Life, which was founded in 1941, is non-denominational Christian nonprofit organization for middle school, high school and college students. The organizations aims to strengthen the relationship youth have with God through fun and leadership building activities.
WyldLife is Young Life’s youth ministry and has met every week this school year to participate in activities ranging from dodgeball to topical discussions about issues face their lives.
Raubenheimer said the newly formed Young Life of Lower Westchester is an offshoot of the . The Greenwich club would receive families from Pelham. Those Pelham families would tell other families about Young Life and organization slowly began to gain more support.
Currently, the club has about 50 students from Pelham, Mount Vernon, Bronxville and New Rochelle. Raubenheimer said the club was able to gain some traction early on by forming a relationship with the Pelham PACT Coalition.
Young Life hopes to use that momentum to continue growing in the coming years.
“We have a big vision of reaching every community in Westchester and growing deep in the communities we are already in,” Raubenheimer said. “We want to do our best to get to know the communities and families in Pelham and the surrounding communities and have this develop at a grassroots level.”
The barbecue is scheduled to take place from 5:30 pm–7:30 pm and the “Mess Fest” is tentatively scheduled to start at about 6:15 p.m.
Raubenheimer said students in grades five and highers who are interested in joining WyldLife are welcome to attend. Additional information on Young Life and WyldeLife is available here.
