Book of Mormon Read-a-Thon

    My stake did this last spring with our Laurels and Priests.  They loved it and so did I and I have been meaning to share this with everyone since then, but had misplaced my schedule.  I found it last night in my tax folder!!  Ha ha!  Anyhow, now I can share what we did so maybe you can do this with your youth.  I know another group did it with the New Testament this past fall and invited youth from any church to come join for the reading, food, and company.  (You will want to make sure you have plenty of snacks and good meals planned because it is a long day and a half!) 
   
    Our set up was a couch at one end of the gym with a couple of the singled comfy chairs most of the Churches have in their foyers.  Those would be for the readers.  You will have at least 2 microphones set up at this end also.  Then we had more of the chairs and couches set around in a big circle, plus large bean bag chairs or any other kind of reclining chair people had available that would be comfortable for hours on end.  Behind that toward the opposite end of the gym was where the snacks and drinks were set up, plus we had mini-trampolines, pogo sticks, jump ropes, tennis balls and a few things like this the kids could go do and still listen as they did, if they were getting tired. 

   So the basic idea is that you start reading Friday evening after school and go until about 11:00 pm, the kids go sleep at host houses (or their own if you live in a super small stake boundary area), and then meet back at 7:00 am to start reading again.  The host families were responsible for getting the youth to and from their homes.  Someone is always reading, even when breakfast, lunch, and dinner is served.  You read one full page at a time, then pass the microphone on to the next person.  The 2 single chairs up front are the reader and the next in line.  The ones on the couch move up in line and anyone else who wants to take their place takes the first empty seat whenever a page is finished.  We did invite guest readers so the youth didn't have to read out loud the whole time but limited them to 1-2 per hour.  They would stay for that hour and then could go home.

The schedule went like this:

Friday
5:00- Arrive and start (guest readers)                                Pages Title-25
6:00- (Guest readers)                                                         Pages 26-50
6:30- Dinner
7:00- (Guest readers)                                                         Pages 51-75
8:00- (Guest readers)                                                         Pages 76-100
9:00- (Guest readers)                                                         Pages 101-125
10:00- (Guest readers)                                                       Pages 126-150
11:00- Leave for night.

Saturday- (Eat breakfast at host homes)
7:00- Arrive (Guest readers)                                             Pages 151-175
8:00-  (Guest readers)                                                       Pages 176-200
8:30- Mid Morning Snack
9:00- (Guest readers)                                                        Pages 201-225
10:00-  (Guest readers)                                                     Pages 226-250
11:00- (Guest readers)                                                      Pages 251-275
12:00-  Lunch                                                                   Pages 276-300
1:00-  (Guest readers)                                                       Pages 301-325
2:00- (Guest readers)                                                        Pages 326-350
3:00-  (Guest readers)                                                       Pages 351-375
4:00-  (Guest readers)                                                       Pages 376-400
5:00-  Dinner                                                                     Pages 401-425
6:00-  (Guest readers)                                                       Pages 426-450
7:00-  (Guest readers)                                                       Pages 451-475
8:00-  (Guest readers)                                                       Pages 476-500
9:00- Guest readers)                                                         Pages 501-525
10:00-  (Guest readers)                                                    Pages 526-531

The End!

Collapse in Exhaustion (after cleaning up!)

 

This really was fun and an awesome spiritual experience for all who participated.

~Stacy~