OUR BIGGEST 25 YET: ALL-NIGHTER RECAP
Westfield Mayor McCabe poses with all-nighter participants.
For months now, we’ve been anticipating the 2026 all-nighter to be our biggest event since inception — and it did not let us down! There were truly so many moments of joy, reflection, energy, and gratitude that filled the hall while students learned about the importance of having fun while giving back. We’re going to do our best to break it down, share our favorite moments, and give you a glimpse into our biggest 25 hours yet.
An all-new all-nighter meant an all-new venue for the WMCD team. As our event has grown, we have been on the search for a new space that better accommodates large crowds and many moving pieces, all while maintaining the familiar WMCD traditions we know and love. It was important to us to find a space that youth participants could dance, eat, relax, sleep, and make memories in at the same time — and we found just that. As we loaded in our full cars to Westfield Middle School on Friday afternoon, the snowy weather from earlier in the week had subsided to give us a warm and beautiful weekend for our fifth annual event. A dozen volunteers were hard at work, setting up the DJ booth, assembling party lights, decorating the cafeteria, and doing set up tasks across the venue. A process that had once taken us a week would be condensed into just four hours, and we weren’t sure if it was possible!
To our surprise, our small but mighty team of volunteers put the final touches on our setup at about 5:00pm, giving us enough time to order some dinner, sit down and chat, and relax for a few minutes before the chaos of the event ensued. It was the calm before the storm — tired volunteers feeling the adrenaline rolling in, getting excited, and taking one last deep breathe before we officially kicked off the fun.
When the clock struck six, the fun started rolling in! First, members of the Westfield High and Westfield Middle School Bands started to filter in and head down to the band room, getting ready to warm up ahead of their kickoff performance. And at 6:15pm, check in began for the other 100+ student participants, and continued steady and strong! Check-in ran smoothly. Participants dropped off their belongings, donned their Enchanted Treetop t-shirts, found their friends, and chilled out as the first DJ rolled in and set up.
Westfield High School and Westfield Middle School band play at our kickoff.
Our kickoff began promptly at 7pm, including a high-energy performance of Eye of the Tiger from the band, a cup stack relay race that proved to be nearly impossible (sorry, participants!), and a warm welcome from our very own WMCD Youth Team. This was the first time our youth team has welcomed participants to the event live — we’ve historically used a pre-recorded video — but it brought just the energy we needed to feel the power of our youth in the room! The DJ did his thing, kicking us off with a party classic (Fireball by Pitbull) and rolling into popular group dances, such as the Cotton Eye Joe and Cha Cha Slide. Before long, all 100+ participants were moving and grooving to top off their long week of school!
Friday night, the energy in the room in palpable! Participants are with their friends, enjoying a night out, and the exhaustion of the overnight hour has yet to kick in. We went back-to-back-to-back with games (such as trying to stack seven marshmallows, which proved to be very difficult!), dancing to song requests, limbo, and more! One of our favorite moments was recreating the Mannequin Challenge, a 2016 trend where everyone in the room stands completely still to look like mannequins. It turned out better than expected — definitely check it out on our socials!
The biggest change this year was the addition of charity games — an opportunity for participants to play games while earning money for our three charity recipients. At around 8:00pm, hosts Dominic Monti and Andrew O’Sullivan gathered all of the participants to explain the rules of the first charity game. Using an all-new basketball hoop, participants had two shots to make a basket for charity. For every basket they made, we would donate $2 to the grand total that we would reveal on Saturday evening. Throughout the 25-hour event, participants also had the opportunity to do the same, but with cornhole, jump roping, and then a combination of all three. We weren’t sure how enthusiastic the participants would be, but their consistency and commitment to these games raised an additional $4,000 for our recipients (who, by the way, they hand-selected).
At 11:00pm on Friday, middle school participants handed in their lanyards, met up with their rides, and went home to catch a few hours of sleep before they returned on Saturday morning for another day of fun. The high school participants, on the other hand, were gearing up for the ultimate challenge: staying awake during the overnight hours after a full week of school. Some of them were really determined to make it through the night, but we certainly saw a lot of participants who were okay with taking a quick nap (maybe an hour or two!) to help them get through the rest of the event.
Participants hang out with their friends as we enjoy Friday night.
As the overnight hours rolled in, we dialed down the energy in the room to better fit the challenge ahead. While the middle school students were leaving, we played a few more minute to win it games before indulging in the midnight feast: chicken nuggets, french fries, and classic chocolate chip cookies. It sure felt good to get some food in our stomachs after dancing the night away so far! The students got to know each other, enjoy the meal, and relax for a few minutes while volunteers prepared for the next lineup of activities.
We dove into the overnight hours with low-energy but high-stakes games, such as a friendly competition of Family Feud, a few rounds of Just Dance (until the participants got a little too tired!) and a variety of karaoke requests before tossing on a movie. Each year, our youth team picks a movie or two to watch overnight that align with the theme — so they all gathered around a few tables with their blankets and pillows, and our overnight movie marathon began! It didn’t last too long for most of our participants… as within an hour or two, they had almost all fallen asleep with their heads down on the cafeteria tables. For the few participants still up, we played a quick round of Bingo before they went to chill with their friends.
At 6:00am, breakfast was served by our team of all-star volunteers! Participants could choose from a variety of bagels, pancakes, bacon, juice, and a few other continental breakfast items. It was just the boost of energy they needed before heading into the second charity game, which was cornhole. With another $1,000 raised, we embarked on the longest stretch of the event — the twelve hours of daylight while definitely a little tired. But that’s what makes it fun! Instead of rushing through games or activities, Saturday’s extended hours give us plenty of time to talk with friends, sing karaoke songs, bingo, and anything else you can image. We began with trivia run by host Andrew O’Sullivan and transitioned into low-energy minute to win it games, such as drawing a partner without looking at your piece of paper. The drawings were quite fun! We played another round of limbo, freeze dance, musical chairs, and broke out the bumper balls to battle each other a few times. Right before the middle school students returned, we gave Name That Tune a shot… but we were a bit too tired to remember the names of most the songs!
After the return of the middle school students at 11:00am, we turned up the music and got the party going with classics! Think Cotton Eyed Joe, Cupid Shuffle, etc. We played another charity game, jump-roping this time, and enjoyed a make-your-own sandwich bar for lunch. The Republican newspaper stopped by to capture the fun and we kicked off another hour of dancing to participant song requests. There’s nothing better than hearing your favorite song while giving back to the community! A few hours behind schedule, we played a few more rounds of Bingo, took a few more requests for karaoke, and then played back-to-back minute to win it games right through dinner. Dinner was served around 5:15pm and was a make-your-own taco and salad bar!
Elena Bliss shares a testimony about Brittney’s Believers.
Once we wrapped up our final meal of our 25-hour adventure, the final charity game was a combination of the three so far (jump-roping, cornhole, and basketball) before we blasted the real party songs to bring the event to an end. This was THE moment — all the participants were on the dance floor, busting a move, and having a good time together before we presented our grants to charity! Down the hall, our charity recipients arrived, alongside special guests, to socialize before our closing ceremony that began at 6:45pm.
Our closing ceremony is hard to describe in words. Lasting about 90 minutes, it featured testimonies from our charity recipients, games with MC Harry Rock, speeches from our youth team seniors, and so many thank you’s for the village that helped make this event so successful. We were proud to present grants totaling $38,340 to our three recipients this year — each recipient brought home $12,780.00 to support their mission. This was the most we’ve raised in one year, bringing our lifetime total to $144,677. Keep an eye out for videos from our closing ceremony coming to our social media platforms soon. We are still absolutely reeling from these last few moments. This event was particularly special, as it was our 5th all-nighter, our first in an all-new venue, the most we’ve raised, and the largest number of participants yet.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for making our dreams a reality. We are so deeply humbled and grateful for the time, energy, money, and donations our community has given us to make this all possible. Thank you for trusting us with our next generation of leaders.
And while we’re tired now, we’re only getting started. Things will be calm for us (for just a few weeks!) but we already have ambitious plans ahead. Please stay connected with us on social media, or subscribe to our email list. We’ll be in touch soon!