Download a copy of the programs below:

YW in Excellence Blank Program

I was in charge of Young Women in Excellence this year.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with this, it’s a celebration we do in my church every year to show off the projects the Young Women have been working on.  The projects come from the Personal Progress book and come in 8 different categories: Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice & Accountability, Good Works, Integrity, and Virtue.  Each category, or value as we call them, has 6 experiences that are required, and is completed by a 10 hour project.

I decided to go with a red carpet theme and have the night be presented as an award show.  This made everything flow really well–plus the girls felt really special as the night’s VIP guests.

I wish I would have taken more pictures, but in my frantic set-up mode I completely forgot.  I also didn’t want to include any pictures of the participants in order to respect their privacy.

Young Women in Excellence Red Carpet Theme Awards Night

The night began with a prayer, then we said our Young Women’s theme.  The bishop spoke, then I spoke.  I basically gave a little summary of the Personal Progress program.  If you need a quick speech, just click here, I basically read and summarized the information on that page.  After I finished, I welcomed our first “presenter.”  We had the class presidents present the categories, then they would call the “winner” up to recieve their award.  In their thank you speeches, the girls briefly explained what they had worked on and shared a quick testimony.  After the presentations, we had a break for refreshments, then gathered for the final slide show.  It went really well!

For trophies, I bought plastic champagne glasses at the dollar store.  We spray painted them gold, then hot glued them to wooden squares we had cut and painted black.

For treats, I found some super cute popcorn bags, also at Dollar Tree.  I hole-punched them, and tied them with a ribbon.

For decorations, we had people bring in a ton of Christmas lights.  I used one of my husband’s bright work lamps as the spot light.  We made the red carpet in the middle of the room by placing two red plastic table cloths from Dollar Tree end-to-end.   I also bought some gold foil stars and wrote each girl’s name on them and placed them along the carpet.  Finally, we placed a podium in the front of the room, and stuck a red curtain backdrop behind it.

For additional refreshments, we asked different leaders and ward members to bring something to share.

Overall, it was a really fun time and I think the girls appreciated the red carpet theme.

Sincerely,

Kara

Have you had to put together a Young Women in Excellence program before?  What did you do?  Let me know in a comment below!