Puttin’ on Their Game Faces: West Valley’s Gayme Night!

By Avi Vieira

Glendale

With 90 seconds on the clock, and the youth of West Valley one•n•ten divided into teams, the night was one of friendly competition and fun as Gayme Night. Our trusty volunteers served as hosts, judges, and timers for the evening which was off to a quick start with a group favorite: Gay Pictionary! Challenged to sketch a randomly-selected person, place, or thing, the youth challenged each other with hilarious guessing and cheers at correct answers at some of the most basic and random of sketches of LGBT and pop culture subjects. The competition was fierce in every sense of the word, with the teams tied at the end of the allotted time. This resulted in a “Sudden Death Rainbow Round” to declare a winning team.

The next game on the agenda was Taboo where the teams were tested in getting their teams to correctly guess an item, phrase, or location without using the name or any of the most common associations. Vague descriptions, active pantomimes, and loose alliterations were made by team members who pushed themselves to earn the most points. The remainder of the evening was devoted to social time, allowing the youth to break from their teams and laugh about some of the more memorable events of the evening.

The evening was sparkling and magical, the sketches and guesses by team members hilarious, which all truly made for an energetic and playful night of camaraderie and good-natured rivalry that also allowed new members to feel both welcome and active in our ever-growing West Valley family.