Young Women in Excellence Program

Tonight was our Young Women in Excellence Program which I was sort of in charge of because of my calling, Personal Progress Coordinator. If your ward doesn't have a PP Coordinator, you should get one...just don't pick somebody like me. I'm an airhead.

However, my balloon-head did not interfere in pulling off a really nice program tonight mainly because of our awesome Presidency and some really awesome girls. I've got to hand it to them - if left solely to my own devices, it would have been a complete bust! I'm sure that the Lord was prompting them all to stick closely to me to make sure I was remembering the finer details.

We received very good accolades from the stake YW Presidency: "The stake leaders said we hit the "nail on the head" when it came to the message and the spirit of the evening and they were so pleased. They said they have been to several of these programs in our stake and were highly impressed with ours." Nothing like warm fuzzies to equalize the feelings of self doubt.

Here's how the program went: Our theme was light. Our cultural hall was decked out with circular tables in a circular pattern. We had white Christmas lights all over as the only light source. There was lots of tulle and white lights. On the table were rose petals, and mason jars with large tea lights in them on top of tulle. There was a long cake table with a white table cloth and white lights all over it squeezed between two large iron gates draped with tulle and white lights. This was the focal point.

I gave each girl a small oil lamp with a battery operated tea light. At the start of the program, all of the lights went out and the girls walked in single file to form a large circle around all of the tables. Only their faces were lit by their lamps. Then they sang "Light Keeper" by Jenny Phillips, a beautiful song about the difficulties one can face in life but by being a "light keeper" we can project our "light" unto the world. They did a beautiful job and I felt such a strong Spirit there while they sang. It made a very powerful message.

Then we plugged the white lights back in and it really softened the room, made it more intimate. We had a prayer and a welcome by our President, and a short address by the Bishop. Then four girls stood and did a short verbal presentation of their projects which was wonderful. They did a fabulous job. After that, we did recognition and awarded a couple of girls for their achievements. And then we were finished. We served cake and the families browsed the tables with the projects. Incidentally, they were set up in the overflow breezeway between the cultural hall and the meeting room. All we had to do was just open the accordian doors behind the cake table and the families could just walk right into the room already set up. It was brilliant (ha, not my idea).

I had some good realizations about this event though. In part because I've been inactive for so many years and had virtually NO experience with the YW program (or any church program for that matter), I found myself lacking. For one, I forgot about the prayer. How dumb is that? Secondly, in preparing for the event, I'm so grateful that the President called a meeting to go over details because it came to our attention that I had completely overlooked what the girls were actually going to be doing that night. I was completely caught up in logistics - it's my forte. Yikes! That was a pretty key bit of information!

Anyway, my sister recommended a committee next time perhaps so that I can ensure that important details aren't overlooked. I think it's a great idea. But, good thing that I have great people around me or else a night that is about the Young Women would have overlooked them completely. Gah!