The anticipation is high as each Shawnee Mission school, adding to a total of about 550 students, crowd around a large spray painted circle. As the kickoff to Younglife Club starting up again, Muckfest is a way for students to be introduced to new people from other school, their schools, and the amazing Younglife leaders in the Shawnee Mission district. Younglife works to introduce Christ to students. With Muckfest being the first thing students are invited to from Younglife this new school year, it provides a fun way for students to come and see just a slight glimpse of what Younglife really is about. Through waterballoons, flour, shaving cream and then mud is avaliable for students to wipe, throw and pelt into other students and Younglife leaders.

The first round starts with waterballoons, and the goal is to protect your schools leader. Each school’s head adult leader is put in the middle and a few select students come up with a strategic way to protect the leader from getting wet as all the other students on the edge of the circle throw water balloons at the other schools leader. After all the water balloons are gone the leaders have to be judged on how wet they are.

From there comes the next layer of muck. Small Dixie cups filled with flour, or better know as flour bombs, are handed out among the students and as the round comes closer each students is to be paired up with another. Some decided to do a piggy back style and head into the circle that way or just run in a “hit” as many people as they can with their flour bombs. The flour becomes like a massive cloud around the students and within the circle is just mass chaos of flour and soon to be muck.

Shaving cream is the next round for the students. Each student before the next round starts is given two handfuls of shaving cream and the goal is to tag as many people as you can with the your shaving cream. All parts of the body are fair game so getting shaving cream all over someones face is not uncommon. It just added to the fun and layers of dirt packed on to each student.

The fourth and final round is the most anticipated and the grossest round of the night. Each school is distributed a bucket of wet thick mud. Before the round starts each school is to pour theirs out on the ground and when all of it is on the ground it is fair game from there. Leaders and students just go crazy of this point on and everyone is covered in enough layers of muck for at least two showers.

In Younglife, the party never stops, so a dance party for everyone was necessary. There was a mix of new and old music that everyone could get their groove on to and for about thirty minutes Shawnee Mission Younglife went crazy dancing, taking pictures, and laughing about the amount of muck everyone was sporting that night.

It was a night to remember and for everyone who missed out on it this year should not worry because this past Wednesday was the 16th Shawnee Mission Muckfest so next year will be even better with more than 55 South students to fight for our victory among the Shawnee Mission schools.