Young Women's Evening in Excellence

Last night we had our Evening in Excellence awards program for our Young Women. We did a big "Oscars" night on the red carpet. We had paparazzi there to take the girls pictures as they came and walked down the red carpet (but I don't have a copy of those, so you get a pictureless post). We also gave all the girls individual awards (made to look like Oscars) and have them give an acceptance speech (where they explained their project they were displaying).

Our highlight of the evening, however, was our "Lifetime Achievement Award" that we gave out. You see, one of our Young Women, Ali, is disabled. She is wonderful and bright, but is mentally handicap and acts like a 2 year old. We (the leaders) had read this article in the New Era called "Personal Progress by Proxy" we decided we wanted to earn Ali's Personal Progress for her, since it is something she couldn't do for herself.

We started working on her Value Projects and Value Experiences in August. Pretty much EVERY free activity between then and now has been dedicated to completing her medallion. We also had two big Book of Mormon Read-a-thon's to help us read the whole Book of Mormon for her.

Last night we were able to present this to her family, and especially to surprise her father with it (her mother passed away last year, so it is just her dad). We tried REALLY hard to keep it a secret from him, and luckily, he was caught very off guard. We also invited her older siblings, who no longer live at home, to come.

It was a very emotional night as we talked about all the service we had done in behalf of this Young Woman. I am so grateful that we had the chance to do this for her. It has brought our Young Women together in a way that NEVER would have been possible otherwise. It has also given us a deeper love for this special Young Woman.

I just want to thank all those leaders who helped get this done. It was a lot of work, especially from all the leaders. Thanks for being patient with my never-ending list of things to do. I thoroughly appreciate all you do, and I am lucky to serve with you.

Anyhow, it turned out to be the greatest Evening in Excellence EVER!!!