"Dive-In" in the Rain

A couple weekends ago I acted as chaperon to Student Council's first official event. They planned a pool party or "dive-in," movie in the pool, event. 60 eighth through twelve graders planned to come have a night of fun. But the night started out a little rough. I showed up early along with the other adults to help set things up. Shortly after arriving at the pool they had rented out for the evening, it began pouring. We were running around in the rain trying to set things up, figure out where to put the projector for the movie, how to hook up sound, etc. Meanwhile the student council members were busy blowing up inner tubes and floating rafts to play with in the pool. Then it turned from downpour to thunder storm. It started thundering and lightning pretty strong. It was raining so hard the pool started overflowing. Some of the students were messing around in the pool and we had to get the students out for fear that they'd be struck by lightening. We were all soaking wet from running around in the rain. This went on for about an hour and we were worried that perhaps the whole event would flop. But slowly it began to lighten up and then finally stopped completely just as the event was supposed to start and students began showing up. Unfortunately we continued to have technical difficulties with the projector and sound equipment for the movie. The student council members planned some pool games like tossing a coconut through the floaty tubes or a belly flop contest. Or tying a rope across the pool with prizes tied to it that the students in the pool had to find ways to work together and reach the surprises. For a while the students pretty much entertained themselves by tying inner tubes together and other various activities with the rafts. Finally after a couple of hours we got the movie working and watched Monsters Inc. It was fun to see my students outside of class enjoying life and each other. Even students who didn't want to swim and showed up in their clothes somehow ended up in the pool.