Young Women's Camp 2011 - PRE CAMP

Pre-Camp 2011 "Daughter's of a Noble Birthright"

Well...if you have been wondering what I have been up to lately...here it is!  I've been busy working on getting our YCL's, Leaders, and Young Women ready for our 2011 Pre-Camp Celebrations.  It all paid off as you will see!

Each Young Woman as they walked into the church building stopped at our Pre-Camp Registration Table and placed on their shirt a NAME BADGE.  The day's events were also available at that table.

Then, the Young Women were escorted to the third overflow where they entered into a setting staged to look like a meadow.  I'm not sure that we accomplished this completely, but that was the look we were going for.  They were each greeted by our YCL'S who were wearing black and white with a special Princess Vine Headpiece in their hair.  While the Young Women were waiting for everyone to arrive we showed pictures from all of the Ward Camp Kick-Off's (I still need to post pictures from all of them on the blog).  Soft music was played and the room filled with bubbly Young Women anxious to learn more about this year's camp.  We started with Opening Exercises.  The Young Women and Leaders were recognized and we sang Love One Another found on page 308 in our Church Hymns.  The Invocation was given followed by us saying together the Young Women's Theme.  After our opening exercises the YCL's started our Pre-Camp Program that we had been working on at our YCL Meetings.  We started with the video clip from last year's 2010 Young Women's Broadcast which you can find on line at www.lds.org under YOUTH.  Then, we went into what we called our Parable of the Princess Story section of the meeting.  We started by having a Senior Primary Child sing I Am a Child of God.  I'd like to thank Kate for doing a wonderful job singing that day.  Kate is in my Ward and she is an angel!  We had one of our YCL's read a narration about the Young Women's Program and the Personal Progress Program (Thanks Jessica!) and then had a talk by one of our YCL's by the name of Shea on how much the Young Women's Program and Personal Progress Program means to her.  Shea just recently finished her Personal Progress.  Way to go Shea!  I had asked the YCL's from the Eustis Ward to sing the song Fit for His Kingdom which was sung beautifully and then we started into the well known story The Parable of the Princesses by Jenny Phillips.  I had asked Brother Smith, a friend of mine to read the story.  He has the perfect narrator voice.  He stood over by a picture that we had on display of the Salt Lake Temple.  President Jackson, a member of our Stake Presidency stood as the King with his three daughters Sarah, Katie, and Allison all YCL'S.  They were each presented a copy of the Book of Mormon from the King as they were sent into the Kingdom to be tested.  Sarah played the role of Rose.  She stood in front of a mirror and when the narration for her section of the book was complete she came and sang the song Nothing Matters More.  Katie playing the role of Hazel sat on the floor by some rocks and a larger copy of the Book of Mormon that was on display.  After her section of the story was complete she stood and sang Beautiful Heart.  She was accompanied by two Young Women.  Maura on the guitar and Rebecca on the flute.  As the story continued it was now time for Allison's part as she played the role of Ebony.  Allison was on the floor with chains attached to her.  When it was her turn to sing she got up off the floor and went the piano.  Allison is a wonderful musician who sang and played the piano along with Lauren on the violin.  These Young Ladies were phenomenal!  Allison sang the song Mercies.  At the very end of the story...one by one our YCL's stood up and walked to the front of the room where they sang Daughter of King by Jenny Phillips and did the sign language for this song each time they sang the chorus.  We had been working on this at the YCL Meetings and the girls did such a nice job.  The Spirit was incredible!  Way to go YCL'S and Leaders!!!  Thank you for all of your hard work!!!  I took some time after to introduce each one of our YCL'S and the Leaders that had been assigned to work with them.  We then started our Pre-Camp Breakout Sessions.

We had four rotations for each of the camp levels to travel to while at Pre-Camp. 

Rotation One:
Rotation One was our Princess Hats and Photo Room located in the 2nd overflow.  While in this room each one of the Young Women were able to make their own Princess Cone hats.  I had purchased these from Oriental Trading because they were pre-cut and ready to go.  All the Young Women had to do was glue blue fabric on, attach the sides, and place ribbon at the top of the hat.  One of our Leaders, Sister Toronto from the Eustis Ward, is a very well known artist and she was kind enough to make a tower for us as our backdrop for our Pre-Camp Princess Photos.  They turned out darling and I greatly appreciate her talents!

Rotation Two:
Rotation Two was our First Aid Room located in the Young Women's Room.  Our Camp Nurse, Sister Woolwine, took some time at Pre-Camp to teach all of the hands on requirements for First Aid.  She also surprised the Young Women with a few unwanted visitors...some FLORIDA SNAKES!!!!!  Let's just say there were several faces that I wish I could have captured on film.  Of course they shared the little snakes first and ended with the mother of all snakes at the end.  Our girls should be 100% prepared if they encounter one at camp.  Thanks Sister Woolwine for everything you did to help us that day!

Rotation Three:
Rotation Three was located in our Family History Center.  While there the Young Women were able to do some more research on their Family Crest or Coat of Arms.  At camp this year they will be creating one of their own.  They spent a lot of time with some of my favorite Family History consultants Sister Downer and Sister Bowlin.  Thanks ladies for making the Young Women feel special.  They always love working with you!  I love that our Young Women are getting excited about Family History work.

Rotation Four:
Rotation Four was our Camp Level Skills Room.  I wanted our YCL'S and Leaders to have a chance to learn more about the Young Women they would be serving at camp.  While in this room they played a game called Once Upon A Time which was my way of letting them all be part of a story.  One by one they got to introduce themselves by saying...Once upon a time there lived a xxx who like to xxx in a xxx.  The girls filled in the blanks with their answers - a ton of fun!  While in this room they also had a chance to deside on the Camp Level Meal they would be preparing at camp and sign-up for camp activities too.  Our YCL'S gave a brief summary of what to expect for each camp level.

At the very end of Pre-Camp we met back together in the 1st overflow which was set up to represent the Pioneers and the direction we are going with some of our camp activities that will tie in with Emma Smith and our Camp Theme.  I took our camp logo and blew up the middle section which was the Pioneer Silouette and made 8 of them to represent each one of our Young Women Values.  These were hung around the room with the Value next to it.  The tables were decorated in blue and white with a mirror for each Young Women to take home with them.  The back of the mirror was their camp supply list and attached to the front was a poem I had found on Individual Worth.  We are planning to have a class on inner and outer beauty at camp so this was a nice tie in.  The Young Women will be bringing the mirrors to camp this year to use in our Camp Beauty Bar.  Bagged lunches were provided and while in the room I had one of our Leader, Sister Widmann, read a story about two Pioneer Sisters found on page 20 in the July 2010 Friend Magazine.  The title of the story is Pioneer Parasols.  Two of our YCL'S, Megan and Chamberlynn (my daughter) played the role of these sweet sisters.  Thus...the white umbrellas that you see hanging from the ceiling. 

This was a fabulous day and I have so many to thank!  I love working with the Young Women and I'm so thankful for the wonderful talents that these young ladies have.

PDF Files available for the following that were shown above...

Once Upon A Time Story -

Music Sign Up Sheet-

Beauty Bar Sign Up Sheet -

Camp Registration Sheet -

Camp Level Meal Option Sheet -

Camp Mirror Supply List -

Small Mirror Camp Logo Stickers -

I Am of Infinite Worth Poem on Mirrors -

If you would like copies of the information shared...please comment here or email me directly at jennifer.hawkins@hotmail.com or beehivemessages@gmail.com.  Be sure to leave me your email address!