Young Women in Excellence

Until today, I was serving in my ward as the Young Women's Secretary.  For those that don't speak 'Mormon' that means I worked with the girls ages 12-18 in an organization we call Young Women's.  Everyone in a ward typically has a 'calling' which is basically an assignment from the Bishop.  Different callings carry different responsibilities & everyone kind of takes turns.  So today, it became someone else's turn & I was so sad to see my time with all those cute girls come to an end.  Mind you, they are all fabulous babysitters & so I see them often in that capacity, but I have loved the time every Sunday & Wednesday night that I got to spend with them.

Our last big activity was during what I so lovingly referred to as 'hell week' in my last post, which in hindsight, was a bad term to use!  It really just reminded me of finals week in college & that was the term used then...anyway, sorry.

During that crazy week we had our Evening in Excellence, which is a night towards the end of the year where we celebrate all the accomplishments of the girls.  Within our Young Women's program they have a myriad of goals & projects they are always working on, so we set aside one night to celebrate & showcase all their hard work through the year.

We actually had one of our 13-year-old girls plan & execute the entire evening as one of her projects.  She did a magnificent job!  She planned, set up, outlined the program, arranged the speakers & music & asked me to contribute these poster size pics.

 

The poster-size prints were made from snap shots that our 13-year-old planner took of each of the girls.  I adjusted a few things in Photoshop {as I have about zero Photoshop skills}, cropped them to a 24x36 size & sent them to a local blue print shop.  They printed them out in gray scale & had them ready for me the next day.  So easy!  With 30 girls & at about $2 a pop, they were an impressive site when you walked into the room.  And needless to say, the girls were happy to take them home with them at the end of the night.

My favorite part of the night was when our 13-year-old planner spoke & used Kung Fu Panda to make an analogy -- about being the 'secret ingredient' in our own life.  Remember in Kung Fu Panda when he finally gets the scroll & it is just a mirror?  And then he talks with his dad who tells him the secret ingredient in his secret ingredient soup is nothing?  It is just his soup & how anything is special if you think it is special.  She correlated that to our relationship with Heavenly Father & how we are His secret ingredient & how special we all are to Him.  I loved listening to her outline it.  And I loved how she found that message in her day-to-day life via Kung Fu Panda.