WE JUST GOT PUT, WARD SPLIT THE LAST 2 TIMES IN 2 YEARS, NEED A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD ACTIVITY, OR MIXER? ANY GREAT IDEAS?

We have more than half of our ward that are non members or inactive and would apperciate some ideas on how to get them involved?

We have been doing this in our ward for about 3 years. We have an adult pine wood durby. About 2 weeks before the activity we tell the members where to get the car kits and about how much they cost. They have those 2 weeks to get their cars ready for race day. I gave this activity a name this year "The 2010 Vernon Cup'. It has been a hit every year. We used the BSA rules in the kit. We had everyone bring a finger food race night. We did weigh in's befor the race starts. Involving nonmembers to this is a great idea and they don't feel uncomfortable because it's such a laid back activity

We are planning ward halloween party and trunk or treat. Always want to have some spiritual message in all activitys but halloweens tough. Any ideas how to bring spiritual aspect to halloween party?

I agree, it's hard to make it a spiritual holiday. When I was Pripres, I did a tithing theme. We gave the kids each 10 pennies when they came in, and the first thing they did was fill out their tithing slips, then they got to go into the cultural hall and play games with prizes (instead of trunk or treat we had people set up booths with a game, brought their own candy). They had fun but learned a principle.
One year the kids had been working towards sundaes by learning articles of faith. I decided to make it more global and we used the Halloween activity. 13 tables were set up each with an article of faith. People manned them instead of trunk or treat, they decorated the tables and brought candy. They helped the kids say their articles (according to the child's ability) and all the kids got candy at the tables and ice cream with all the toppings when they had completed their Article of Faith card. (At evening candy-handout activities we always provide at least hot dogs for the...

Since the new handbook has come out, the auxiliaries are doing activities more. My dh is Elder's Quorum president and planned a Turkey Bowl for the guys on Thanksgiving morning. No one in the stake was doing anything for New Years so he organized a Rubber Chicken Volleyball tournament. It was a lot of fun. Great to bring investigators to, and the whole family could play. Now we're working on a Valentine's activity, the whole family eats together, then the kids split to do a Primary Activity with the Young Men and Young Women, and the adults will play a Newlywed type game (only the ones who put their names in will be called to participate). It should be great fun to watch. We are hoping other auxiliaries will plan ward activities too.

Our Newlywed game was a huge hit, we had it so men were on one side and women on the other (two tables on the stage with a 4 inch barrier in front.) Women wrote their answers then men guessed, then the other way. We only asked three questions each, then another group of couples got to come up. Everyone who signed up participated. We are doing it again this year. In between we did Family Feud. Getting all the answers tallied, ranked and put on posterboard was a lot of work, more than I thought, and I wasn't done until the event was half over! It was a lot of fun though. Made a big board out of cardboard. SOmeone needs to take pictures of this stuff because I am always behind the scenes! Besides our yearly Turkey Bowl we also did a ward dinner for those without families. We deep fried turkeys.

here is a YSA activity: "where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? Who is your Carmen?" its a dating/cooking challenge!