New Beginnings

Tonight we had our New Beginnings program for the Young Women. I have been working on putting it all together for a few months. Betsy Baugh got the theme idea for the night from her cousin who did it out in Utah. I took the idea and changed it all up. We called it NBA, New Beginnings Association. The night had a basketball theme. We treated it as if we were holding an NBA Draft. I sent out invitations that were basketballs and inside it said you are invited to the NBA Draft "New Beginnings Association". Each girl also got a program of the events of the night and at the back of the book it had a picture of each girl with their stats listed. A week before, Kristina and Nicole sprayed numbers on the back of white shirts and then we let the girls decorate their shirts and they all signed each others. The girls all wore them except for the new Beehives.

We have eight leaders, so Rachael spray painted a megaphone on white shirts for each of us. We each had a megaphone on our shirt with the value colors on. We were the cheerleaders for the night. I made a set of pom poms out of trash bags for each of us. The room was set up with 5 round tables on the outer edge and the girls were in chairs in the middle of the room and we as the cheerleaders were up in the front of the room. I made basketball centerpieces for each table. When it was time to start we turned the lights out and had two spots on. The girls were all in the hall and we as cheerleaders lined up at the front door. I had the jock jams cd that played as each girl was announced by the commissioner (Andy) who read off their stats as they ran out through the leaders into the room.

After the introductions the girls all sat up in front and each new beehive was drafted into the NBA and was given her shirt and a contract that she signed as well as the YW president and Bishop. We also gave them a large candy bar shaped like a dollar bill.

I had Bill Brown come to act as the paparazzi and take photos all night. Between the drafts we had a some speakers. The laurels each read a scripture that goes with each one of the values and the stake YW President, Nancy Goodyear spoke on what it means to be a member of the NBA or YW association. Our bishop spoke as well, and Kristina did a presentation on personal progress.

We had a half time show in which us as leaders performed a few cheers with the crowd. It was pretty silly to say the least. After all the new beehives were drafted we retired the jersey’s of the YW who received their medallion that year. We had them take the shirts off that they had made and we hoisted them up on the basketball rim and raised the rim up to the ceiling as music played and we cheered. For dessert we served popcorn in little bags, as if you got it from a concession stand at an NBA game.

I think the night turned out to be a success. I hope that the girls had a great time and that they felt appreciated. We as leaders had a fun time putting this on for the girls. We decided to do a pyramid after it was all over. The pictures all turned out so cute.