YW in Excellence 2012

We recently had our YW in Excellence program & I thought I would share some of the pictures from that night with you! Since the theme this year was "Arise & Shine Forth", we kind of brainstormed what would shine. I had a bunch of these silver stars left over from a camp craft a few years ago & immediately came to mind the song, "Like the Stars" by Jenny Phillips. I love the words she wrote:

Lyrics to “Like the Stars” 

by Jenny Phillips

The night is dark, the word is shifting

Everything is so unsure

But the stars above are always constant

Reminding us of who we are.

We were meant for higher things

And God you want us to be

Like the stars

Steadfast and unchanging

Immovable and unwavering

A strong and holy light

A sure and steady guide

When all of the world is falling apart

You want us close to where you are

Like the stars

So burn in me

True and steady

Give me strength to shine

Use my life

To light the darkness

Leading those who fall behind

It’s your design for me

And I’ll give everything to be

Like the stars

Steadfast and unchanging

Immovable and unwavering

A strong and holy light

A sure and steady guide

When all of the world is falling apart

You want us close to where you are

Like the stars

We will shine our light

We will shine our light

Like the stars

Steadfast and unchanging

Immovable and unwavering

A strong and holy light

A sure and steady guide

When all the world is falling apart

We want to be close to where you are

Like the stars

Like the stars

We printed these up on a card and as we called each girl to come up and share with their parents something they worked on that year and how it influenced their life or testimony, etc., we handed them the card and a necklace off the board below. 

Below is a picture of the podium all decorated up!

This was their "Walk of Fame", so to speak! 

At the end of the night, the girls all stood and sang, "Like the Stars" by Jenny Phillips! So beautiful!

We had wanted to have this night in a room other than the chapel so we wouldn't need to dress up too much, and the cultural hall was being used prior to our time, but that meant we wouldn't have much room to put their projects on display. So, we put them in the hall. (This probably violated the fire code, but it was only for an hour.)

 All in all, it was a good night. The girls were so cute, each adding a funny little way of expressing themselves, or sharing a testimony building story. Each girl only took about 2 minutes, so it went rather fast, and didn't make for a long night, which is always appreciated by all.

A Simple YW in Excellence Night

We recently had our YW in Excellence Night. It was a simple evening, with the girls singing some songs they had learned throughout the year for various things. We had a videography committee that had made videos of girls answering various questions about personal progress. Some of their answers were so amazing. I loved all of them. We combined those into a video presentation.

And then the girls showed off their amazing projects they had worked on. But we got this idea from Jenny Phillips at http://www.jennyphillips.com/ to go through old Ensigns and cut out various pictures of Christ and mod podge them onto blocks of wood. They were basically free. The only things is when you are using magazine pages, the paper is different than if it were scrapbook type paper, so when it dries, it is a little bumpy. I did not mind this. I thought it looked as if the picture were old and was really lovely. We displayed them all on a table and let the girls choose which one they would like to take home. A simple evening, but nice.