I asked the Beehives what they wanted to do to help. One of the girls offered to do the table display - which I told her she could use for her 10 hour project. She did a good job. Two of the other girls made cupcakes and another girl made note cards with each of the Values, their scriptures and quotes on them for a part of our program.
We gave the girls their invitations in church a couple of weeks beforehand, and mailed out invites to their parents. We also invited our new beehives for this year and their parents. We've only got two and they will be joining us at the end of this month and in the middle of March. So, we figured it would be good to have them there. And as a special treat for them, our secretary who used to be a florist, made them adorable corsages. I think it was a nice touch.
Our program consisted of the typical opening songs and prayers. (Opening Song: "Teach Me to Walk") We had 7 of the YW introduce the values (using the cards one of the Beehives made) and each wore the corresponding color also. After that, we had a speaker talk about the new value: virtue. It was going to be our YW president, but after her daughter was in a really bad accident and ended up in the hospital just days before, I told her not to worry about it. So, I prepared and gave the talk. I really loved it too! I hadn't taken the time yet to read all the resources on the Church website yet, and reading them with the purpose of giving a talk to the YW makes things a little more meaningful. I was excited about the new value before, but now I really see it's purpose and I LOVE it! (You can find a link to the talk at the bottom.) After my talk, we had one of our Laurels who had completed her Personal Progress speak about her experience with it. She gave the parents some pointers and shared her testimony. She did a great job. Then it was time for a musical number from another of our Laurels. Our final speaker was the Bishop who spoke about the Mutual theme scripture. Our bishop is great and did a fantastic job! And then ended with a song and a prayer followed by cupcakes in the kitchen. (Closing song: "True to the Faith")
We planned a gift for the girls also, but alas, it did not make it in time. So, we will give it to them on Sunday. We got vinyl lettering for them saying "Be thou an example" for them to put on the mirrors, or in their cars - wherever. Because we didn't have their gifts, I did make a handout from one of the quotes in my talk (which I mounted on black cardstock). You can find a link to that also. And I just want to note that I made the invitations (find link at bottom), programs (no link, since it has the girls full names on it), and the handouts all matching. It was lovely!
Overall, I give the night a B+. It went well, but I think I've figured out how to do things better and perhaps make things more interesting, if I ever do this again. (Not that I'm volunteering!)
And, of course, I remembered to bring my camera, but forgot to take pictures. Doh!
