Evening in Excellence

  So far our Stake YW Presidency has gone to 3 out of 5 of the wards in the stake for their Young Women Evening in Excellence. All 3 were very different and all wonderful. The first ward saw an opportunity to meet and really introduce the Personal Progress program to the parents of their young women during this evening. Even though that is normally done during a new beginnings activity, our stake does New Beginnings on a stake level so the individual wards can't personalize it and speak to the parents as much in the beginning of the year in a group setting to get them excited about it. After their YW presidency introduced the program the 3 class presidents then spoke on different values and the bishop rounded it out challenging them to be Excellent. Lovely.
  The second ward had each young woman speak on a different value. They all prepared a couple songs to sing as well. Their president took time to spotlight each girl and talk about why they are so great. When their bishop spoke, he added his love for all the girls. We ended the night by looking at tables filled with their interests. I always love that part since I, as a stake leader, don't get to spend a lot of one on one time with the girls and need to catch up on their interests and desires there at evening in excellence. It is wonderful to see how they are growing every year and what they have accomplished. By their works you shall know them.
  The third ward had each girl choose a value to speak on. They then told what it meant to them and what personal progress project they had or were working on in that area. We found out how they grew from that experience. Each was short since they had so many girls. Then they had a video where they showed personal interviews of the girls interlaced with interviews of the former and current bishop and yw photos. Not only did it spotlight each girl but the questions they answered helped bring the spirit to the meeting. An example would be, "What is it important to have a testimony of Christ?" They also had tables to help us get to know the girls better. Theirs had tangible results of value projects they had made from the personal progress program though so it was a little different. They also created and printed up newspaper clippings of each girl so you could get to know their thoughts better. All in all a very good experience in spotlighting the girls in a night of their achievements in personal progress.
  Can't wait to see the last 2 wards.