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Residents need not fear these T.H.U.G.s

Some T.H.U.G.s (True Heroes Under God) and their advisor from the Emmanuel Lutheran Church youth group prepare to launch this year’s Easter Egging fundraiser for youth group activities. For a small fee, they’ll place plastic eggs with or without candy inside on the lawn of anyone a customer wants egged. There’s also a cleanup option, revenge egging option or insurance against egging. For information, call Shane or Linda Gibson at 330-337-6040. Youth group members pictured, front from left, are Zoee Moore, Sam Moore, Katie Moore and Troy Gibson and back from left, Hunter Christopher, Cameron Christopher, Braydon Gibson and advisor Shane Gibson. (Salem News photo by Mary Ann Greier)

SALEM — Area residents who see T.H.U.G.s armed with eggs on their neighbor’s property need not fear.

This kind of egging represents God’s Easter gift and a way for Emmanuel Lutheran Church youth group members to raise money for their activities.

“They feel like they’re being mischievous, but they’re doing good work,” youth group advisor Shane Gibson said.

T.H.U.G. stands for True Heroes Under God, a name the youth group adopted four years ago, which is also when the Egg-cellent Fundraiser started under the direction of Shane and his wife, Linda, who work together as the advisors for the youth group.

The concept started out pretty simple — pay to have someone else’s property egged, all in good fun, as a contribution to the youth group. For another fee, the group can clean up the eggs.

In the second year, the chance to purchase anti-egging insurance was offered, for another small fee. In the third year, they factored in the need for revenge.

A person whose property was egged could pay to have the eggs gathered up and placed back in the yard of the person who egged them.

The cost for plastic eggs containing candy is $15 for two dozen and $25 for four dozen. For eggs without candy, two dozen eggs cost $10 and four dozen cost $15.

An anti-egging insurance premium for the 2017 Easter Egging season costs $15. A cleanup costs $10 and a revenge cleanup costs just $15. They’ll even use pink eggs to represent the fight against cancer, if requested.

Those small fees apparently add up. The youth group raised over $1,000 through the project last year, but Shane said this year is particularly important because members of the group are trying to raise enough money to attent a national youth gathering in Houston, Texas in 2018.

The event for Lutheran youths to join together is held every three years. The last one was held in Detroit, Mich. and the one before that was held in New Orleans. They’re figuring on a cost of $1,200 to $1,500 per teen, with about 10 planning to go.

They’re doing all kinds of fundraisers to help the teens reach their goal, from a soup and salad sale to a buckeye candy sale and Easter chocolate sale in the shape of religious symbols.

Speaking of symbols, just how does a plastic egg represent God’s gift? According to Shane, the egg itself represents the tomb of Jesus. If the egg is empty, that’s symbolic of the Resurrection. If there’s a candy treat inside, that’s symbolic of the gift that Jesus gave the world.

For each egging adventure, a group of four or more youth group members accompanied by an adult descend upon the chosen property, spread the eggs around in secret and then one brave youth group member will tape a sign to the door which states “You’ve Been Egged!!!” and explains the program and all the various options, then they knock and run. Shane said they got caught once and had to explain to someone’s neighbor what they were doing.

The people who hire them usually give them a warning about dogs or other information they’ll need to know about the property or the recipients. In some cases, the advisors will call ahead to let the recipient know what to expect.

There’s always an adult with the teens and they try to wear their T.H.U.G. shirts as identification and go out in daylight before it gets dark. They also try to let the local police know what they’re doing. Kids are schooled before they go out for the first time on not peeking into homes or damaging property. Many people are familiar with the program because they’ve been “hit” before. Besides working in Salem, they’ve also traveled as far away as Canfield, Hanoverton and New Waterford.

They even ventured into a nursing home to give a resident a basket full of eggs. When the other residents seemed disappointed about not getting anything, the teens went to the vehicle, came back with another basket and passed out eggs to all the residents as a form of outreach.

“We give back to the community,” Shane said.

The youth group members have volunteered at the Banquet in Salem, helped out at Alchemy Acres and the local food bank and volunteered at Eyes for Olivia events in Salem. Any work they do scores them credit toward their accounts for activities, such as the youth gathering, paintball and other fun stuff. The age range for the youth group at Emmanuel Lutheran is 7th through 12th grade, but some younger siblings have joined in the adventure. Members represent several area school districts.

Shane stressed that no real eggs are used and they don’t do anything with toilet paper either. No vandalism.

The eggings will continue until April 12, which is the Wednesday before Easter, out of respect for Holy Week.

To schedule an egging, buy insurance, get revenge or just get information, call Shane or Linda at 330-337-6040.

mgreier@salemnews.net

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