Waking up early Saturday morning was not in the plans for several middle and high school students after spending the majority of their night at the Portage 16 IMAX for a lock-in.
Valparaiso Nazarene Church and Real Life Community Church of the Nazarene in Portage have both organized this event separately in the past, but teamed up to host one giant lock-in this year.
Youth Pastors Mike Denny and Rich Evans were involved in setting up the event. The event started at 11:30 pm with students gathering in Theater 15 for a kickoff showing of the movie Elf. The movie started at approximately 12:30, after introductions and ground rules had been covered.
Before the first show, students from Real Life Community Church of the Nazarene met upstairs to enjoy some pizza, and then met up with Valparaiso Nazarene Church in the theater.
A couple rows of students at a time were given permission to go into the lobby of the theater and take a bag of popcorn and a small drink. The drinks were refillable throughout the night.
Some small prizes were given out before the movie to students who did things like name the twelve items given in "The Twelve Days of Christmas" or sing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".
Once the movie started, the teenagers had the option of watching the movie or going into other theaters to play games.
Once the movie ended around 2:00 a.m., those watching the movie joined those playing games. All personal items could be left in the theater so students wouldn't have to carry anything around. The theater is also where kids or parents who felt their eyes getting a little heavy could go to catch some sleep.
Outside the theaters, pizzas from Little Caesars were set out for hungry teens to enjoy.
Portage’s Game Stop donated games to the IMAX for the kids to use during the lock in. There were multiple Xbox consoles, PlayStation consoles, and Wii consoles set up in various theaters for gamers to experience their favorite games on the big screen.
One of the more popular games of the night was Just Dance 2014, featuring songs like Applause by Lady Gaga and Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke.
If playing games wasn't what students wanted to spend their night doing, music was played upstairs for dancing. Students could also lounge on the couches or just hang out.
Later, students could then head back to Theater 15 to watch How to Train Your Dragon around 6:00 a.m.
After the show ended around 8:00 a.m., parents came to pick up their children, Valparaiso students boarded their buses, and the lock in was officially over.