New Beginnings

I've been so excited about this post since it happened and now I finally can spend the time on it. I was kind of terrified of this part of Young Women's when I got called into it, the big activities and programs like New Beginnings. I am so grateful for the Internet because I was able to find an awesome idea for our New Beginnings when the time came to plan. NB is like a kick-off for the Young Women's program to get the girls excited for the new year and Personal Progress so there was a lot of pressure for it to be fantabulous! I jumped onto sugerdoodle.com and found the best idea, an Olympic new beginnings, which worked out amazingly because the 2010 Winter Olympics were being hosted in Vancouver, Canada this year.

The lady on sugardoodle had templates and everything for invitations and scripts. I just cut and pasted and used and discarded what I wanted! It was awesome. The logo that was given was this amazing young women's torch symbol over 8 Olympic rings the colors of the values. I absolutely had to used it. I ended up color printed the logo on this shiny silver paper and then printed the invitation part on translucent vellum paper. They looked amazing especially because he Olympic ring logo was on a tan back ground to see the white (faith) ring. On the silvery paper it came out gold!! Here's a pic of it below. They were so cool I couldn't throw out the extra one so it's still in my scripture case!! haha

I wanted the whole thing to be kind of like an Olympic medals ceremony so we set up a back drop kind of similar to the real thing. I used the same logo to create a giant YW's Olympic symbol out of cardboard and form paper. I printed the flame head on the same silvery paper and attached a black handle. It turned out sweet.


Here's the whole back drop. I had to have twinkle lights cause they basically rock. I wanted to have them every where but that was soooo too much work. We had medals put together for all the girls with this years theme on them. The jar next to the podium was for the torch when it came in (not a real one but a seriously cool one).

Since flags are a huge part of the Olympics I thought it would be fun to have a flag ceremony with each of the the value colors as a flag. I found all this really neat fabric at Walmart already cut into the perfect size with all different kinds of patterns on it. I got two of each color and sewed them into flags. We had the girls come in after all the parents were seated carrying the flags around the tables to the old Calgary Olympic theme. The lights were off and the torch was lit. It looked so real! I wish I got pics of it but I was slacking at that moment. The girls eventually ended up at the front where there was a jar on the table for each flag. Below are the girls with their flags. We had them wear a shirt that corresponded with their flag color.

A huge part of our branches Personal Progress program is focused on getting to the temple so we have certain things that the girls earn once they complete a goal that gives them something special related to the temple. Some of the things are a temple recommend holder, temple clothing bag, special temple book and decorative tiles. Things that will remind them what their goal ultimately is. Below is the display table of all the things.

Sadly I neglected to get a picture of the torch lit up at the actual event so one of the missionaries gladly offered to hold it since he missed when the actual Olympic torch went through Airdrie. I looks real when the lights are off. SO COOL!!! I got the design from the sugardoodle.com lady's blog. It worked superbly!
The rest of the photos are just fun ones of the girls holding their medals or their flags. Overall it was an amazing night! We had each girl go up and pass the torch to each other and give an example of a women in the gospel that exhibited their value. A member of the branch presidency talked, as well as the stake YW's president. We also listened to the song called "Believe" which was the the theme song of the Vancouver Olympics. Such an amazing inspired song! Download if you don't have it!!! I get chills every time I hear it. For dessert we had each girl bring their favorite dessert, so easy and we have a few girls that have special diets for nut allergies, etc. and they were able to bring something they could eat. What started out as a scary event turned into a super spiritual fun night for the leaders, parents and the girls!!

Our YW's president, Michelle with one of the Laurals.

One of our Laurals and Beehives showing off their sweet medals. Made out of wood, gold spray paint and vinyl lettering. They say, "Be strong and of good courage."

One of my most favorite pics of that night! All the girls raising their value color flags to the sky. woot woot! I love the one girl that has hers straight up!! haha Way to go for the Young Women's program the church has put together! I have such a great love for it and the things it teaches our girls and for the things I learn from it myself.