Our
theme for our YW in Excellence is "The Amazing Race". One of our
advisors is a marathon runner and has overcome some serious physical
hardships
in order to be able to run. She is going to share her story with
them and relate it to life as a race and the obstacles we have to
overcome.
Our invitations are tied onto a water bottle with shoelaces. We
are
going to have a "runway" decorated with running shoes, finish line etc
where they walk down with whatever they choose to display and we will
read
something about them written by their parents. We are going to
have
some different unity building games they can play with their parents
and
have some refreshments. The centerpieces will be either
running
shoes or other race memorabilia. We hope it goes well!
We just had a
tremendous
Young Women in Excellence.The theme was "Remember Who You Are".
The
invitations were a cut out of a hand, and we glued a ribbon on one of
the
fingers. On the front of the invitation was the word,
"Remember".
When you opened the card it continued, "Who You Are". Then it
listed
the details of time and place,etc.. Since it was fall, we decorated
with
all fall colors. We used little baskets for center pieces on the
tables, and filled them with apples, small squash, and the little
pumpkins.
We had a small branch of silk fall leaves sticking out of them. We had
a display table to showcase things the girls have done throughout the
year.
We had a slide
presentation
made from Greg Olsen's book, "I Am a Child of God". We had a
wonderful
speaker who talked about how she gained her testimony of who she
is.
The musical number was, "What Heaven Sees in You", from the CD, "Woman
of Destiny". The Young Women President and the the Bishop gave
brief
remarks, and we ended with the hymn, "I Am a Child of God". For
handouts,
we used little wooden hands painted flesh colored with red fingernail
polish.
We tied a small ribbon around the index finger, glued a small mirror in
the middle of the hand, and then wrote the word, "Remember", at the
base
of the hand. We glued a magnet on the back. It was a lovely
evening.
The spirit was wonderful, and everyone left feeling great
Well, I just got called
to yw. we are actually planning our yw in excellence night tonight. An
idea I'll submit is a model-runway type night. Depending on how much
time
you have you can add alot to it or not. The main idea is to have the
young
women make something. depending on time... boxers, capris, scrunchy,
decorate
old pants. etc... Another cute idea is to do flipflops buy cheap ones
1.97
at walmart or use their own decorate with beads faux rhinestones, value
color material scraps knotted whatever. If you have enough wks. Do that
the first week. 2nd week do hair care/make-up. 3rd wk color
drape/modest
dress/flattering styles/posture. 4th week
excellence night. Make a
runway for the girls to walk. show off what they made or thing learned
from past month mutuals. while they are walking leaders read a
paragraph of hobbies,
activities
what they're involved in etc... Girls stop center stage get asked a
question....
favorite mutual this yr? a value question? which value would you
consider
your self a strong example of etc... If you do ask value questions you
could at the end reward the girls with a ribbon or sash according to
value
question. You can even make crowns of ribbon and wire. Use the cheap
stuff
at walmart 33 cents a spoll. They have all the colors. You could title
the night standing tall, standing
proud. Our young women of
royal birth. young women royalty. etc... If you have any questions e
mail
me. This might be too late but you might be able to use it for
something
else. e mail here
****GOD BLESS AMERRICA****
ThE DaISy GirL!,
Summer Allen
We made unique and
personal
testimony books for the young women in our stake which included
testimonies
from family members; ward and stake Young Wolmen leaders, ward and
stake
priesthood leaders; Sister Margaret D. Nadauld (Young Women General
President);
and President Gordon B. Hinckley. Each testimony book was the
size
of a half-page piece of paper and had the individual girl's name
printed
on the front. We bound them with plastic comb bindings.
There
were blank pages at the back each book for additional thoughts and
testimonies.
These books could be presented for almost any ward or stake special YW
event (New Beginnings, YW Recognition, Standards Night, or ward
conferences).
For detailed instructions on formatting these books, including the
graphics
and assembly instructions,
e
mail me here
Because we are in a very urban
setting,
and the numbers of active girls are quite low (20 girls), we have our
YW
in Excellence as a Stake Fireside. At the beginning of 1997 we asked
each
ward to begin thinking of and working on something to present, as a
ward,
in the fireside. Each ward worked together on their YW in excellence
personal
progress goal, thus promoting togetherness, and used several of their
Tuesday
night activities to accomplish this. For some wards it was crafty -
others,
more spiritual. The night of the fireside was set up with an
introduction
from the Stake YW pres, then each ward had a time allotment, depending
on ward size (ranging from 10 girls to 1). Each ward used music in some
way, and then discussed what they had worked on that year. In this way
each girl participated in a way that was comfortable for her. A member
of the Stake Presidencey gave the closing remarks and we then had
refreshments
and were able to look at some of the tangible things the girls had done
that year.
Jane Jones -
London, England
For our Young Women in Excellence, when I was one of the young
women, we had a night of honor. Our leaders treated it like a
court
of honor for an Eagle Scout award and we had our parents get up and
share
their feelings about us and our acheivements. We also had the
bishop
speak to us. We had refreshments, and each of us that were
receiving
our medallions felt very special, and felt pleased to know we were
recognized
for our great accomplishments. I hope to use this in our Young
Womens
program in our ward!!!
Tina Skolmoski
- Sandy, Utah
This year we are having our camp girls perform their skit they
did at camp for their parents. They really "excelled" in the
planning
and performing of this skit and we felt it was a great example of
growth.
We also are using all of the handouts from Sunday to "decorate" the
tables
to show the parents what we have stressed this year in the Sunday
lessons.
Then we give each girl an opportunity to set up her own "table" to
display
those items which represent her own personal growth, stressing one or
more
of our values. We offer the girls the opportunity to
decorate, plan the program, and create a dessert table for our
refreshments.
That way there are even more opportunities to provide the girls
with
ways to excel, and "show off" a little for their parents. Thus,
"Young
Women in Excellence" is a literal theme for our event.
Jeanie Opfel
- Mesa, Arizona
We based our YW in Excellence theme on the story of the bristle
cone pine. We decorated with plain Christmas trees and pine
cones,
and gave each girl a wooden pine tree as a handout. The lesson
from
the bristle cone pine tree is that each girl progresses at a different
pace and that some girls have to overcome greater odds to show a little
growth, but are progressing just the same. I.
Sharon Wilson
- LaVerkin, Utah
We had a "Hats Off to You" night. The room was
beautifully
decorated with hats of all sorts. Desert was little cakes for the
girls in the shape of a hat and a big cake in the shape of a hat for
everyone
else. The girls demonstrated what they had worked on for the year
of course. A poem was read as we the leaders took turns
demonstrating
the hats the girls will all wear in their life. The parents loved the
evening.
Invitations were sent out on a folded 3 corner hat.
Donna McMurry
- Allen, Texas
My ward has not done this but my co-worker's ward does an
entire
sacrament meeting for Y.W.I.E. then has an open house that evening
where
the whole ward is invited to see the girls' displays and eat
refreshments.
Nicky Fike -
Provo, Utah
