Faith

For my Faith Value Project I made 4 coordinating items to donate to our ward Young Womens organization to use during Sunday opening exercises

Here are descriptions of each of the projects. A lot of time went into planning, ordering supplies, and working out the details. Making the actual items was fairly easy.

Young Womens theme board

The supplies for the YW theme board:

       A YW theme poster (bought mine here)                       
  
       A large black foam-core board (purchased at Walmart)                                                  
      
       Tape                                   

       Ribbon ( I used a kind of sticky ribbon tape)   

What to do: Attach the poster to the board with tape, then put the sticker tape over the edges of the poster.  Its very nice looking and easy.

Cost: @ $23.00 (will vary if you choose a different type of poster - some are less expensive)

Glittery pencil jar

Supplies needed for the glitter pencil jar:

A widemouth glass mason jar

"Modge Podge"

Glitter

Foam paint brush

Ribbon



What to do: Paint the inside of the jar with Modge-Podge then put a bunch of glitter into the jar then spin the jar around 'til the glitter is covering the whole inside of the jar. Then let it dry. Wrap the ribbon around the top of the jar a few times to cover the rim, and attach with glue.



Cost : @$2.00

Opening exercises dry-erase board

Supplies needed:

A large picture frame with glass (I used a frame meant for a 11 x 13" photo)


Scrapbook paper or fabric


What to do: Cut the scrapbook paper to fit the frame. Print out the words you want, glue them onto the scrapbook paper (I added a 2nd color scrapbook paper as a matt behind the words for more contrast). Put the paper in the frame. You can now use dry-erase markers to write the names in every Sunday!


Cost: @$15.00 (depends on cost of frame - you can buy a very inexpensive frame for about $5)

Me with the finished projects

Virtue

All of the Young Women are required to read the Book of Mormon for their Virtue Value Project, to strengthen their testimonies. You can do this project at anytime, so I did it as one of my first projects. I finished it in 1 month and 1 day.

Choice and Accountablity

This is me with one of the candidates for State Governor at the time, Rob McKenna

For my " Choice and Accountability" 10 hour Value Project I volunteered at the local Republican  Headquarters. I picked this project because the choices people make now in political things effect our futures and the future generations. Its important to be informed and get involved.

I "phone-banked," which is where you call people and ask them to vote. It took me a little over ten hours (really I could volunteered more or less, they really need people to volunteer). 

This project wouldn't be available as an option all the time, only around election season. But there are other politically-related volunteering things you can do. 

To get more information talk to your parents, leaders, or political leaders in your area, so they can help you find ways and places to volunteer. 
 

Individual Worth

 

Our Ward was having a talent show, put on by the Ward-Missionaries. The main point of it was to provide an activity that members could invite their friends and family to. My mom was in charge of it,  and I helped her plan and carry it out as my "Individual Worth" Value Project. Since I wanted to do this as part of my Personal Progress, she put me in charge of a lot of things.

Things I did to help were:

• Promote TALENT SHOW by word-of-mouth, email, handouts, announcements, & posters

• Encourage/commit ALL ward members to participate in TALENT SHOW

• Encourage & commit ward members to invite friends & relatives to the TALENT SHOW

• Prepare refreshments

• Call to remind people of the TALENT SHOW

• Clean up after TALENT SHOW 

For me it took about ten hours, but it could be a lot more, depending on what you are in charge of. Since my Mom was actually in charge of the activity, I didn't need to get permission to put on the activity (like I did with the clothing swap for my "Good Works" Value Project).

Knowledge

My Young Womens President is very good at playing piano. She offered all of the Young Women free piano lessons. I started taking lessons about a year ago. After she got me the simplified hymns book, I started my "Knowledge" Value Project. 

I learned to play three songs: 

• "Lord, I would follow thee" 
• "There is sunshine in my soul today"
• "God be with you till we meet again"

I practiced them until I was very confident. Then I arranged to play the piano for opening exercises in Young Womens class on a Sunday. This project took right around 10 hours for me to do.

Good Works

My parents were Ward Missionaries when I started YW.  There were a lot of families in the area who were struggling to purchase church clothes as their kids (and husbands) outgrew them. Several people had approached my Mom with offers to donate used church clothing (and other clothing) to new-member families and investigators. Some people had clothes they wanted to share, but didn't know how (or who could use the sizes of clothing they had to offer). Someone even suggested holding a ward clothing swap, but soon my parents were released and nothing came of it.

I decided to hold the clothing swap on my own for my "Good Works" Value Project. It was hard, but rewarding for me and everyone who participated.

Some of my responsibilities were:

•  Getting the activity approved by the Bishop (since it was a ward-activity)

• Reserve the building

• Making the hand-outs and posters

• Announcing the activity at church and at mutual

• Advertising by email, etc

• Personally arranging for people to donate clothes

• Making signs for inside the GYM (stating the "rules")

• Arranging the tables and organizing the clothes by type/size

• Training and organizing volunteers (we had a multiple people offer to help)

• Secure a place to put the extra clothes that didn't get taken until they could be transported to D.I., and transfer them there

Here some things that needed to be addressed:

THE RULES: Many people were concerned by the term "SWAP" because they thought it meant that clothes needed to be traded or bargained for, I was careful to explain to everyone that there would be no trading or bargaining. All clothes would be free to whoever wanted them (first come first serve) and everyone could take as many items of clothing as they needed. I made a big poster with "the rules" and posted them up in the cultural hall during the swap (see photo above). The main thing I was worried about was people fighting over things, but I didn't have any problems with that.

I allowed a 1/2 hour for set-up and 1 hour for swapping (drop-off was from 830-9am and the swap was from 9am-10am). We asked people to come with their clothes pre-sorted into mens, womens, kids, and baby.

VOLUNTEERS: I had several people volunteer to help (including those people who had originally suggested the swap) and my parents and grandparents came to help as well. I made signs that said "volunteer" for them to wear so that people would know who they could ask for help. I had one person at the door, directing people where they could put their clothes between 830-9am and handing out shopping bags between 9-10am for the swap. Some people were still bringing clothes after 9am, so they were directed where their clothes should go.

Photo of my grandpa at the end of the swap, wearing all the volunteer signs

PROBLEMS: As soon as the swap was announced, people wanted to know if they could bring clothes to store at the church or at my home. I had to be firm and say no - clothes could be brought to the church at the designated time on swap day only. One person brought 10 garbage bags of clothes and left them outside the church 2 weeks before the swap (and called to tell me afterward). This caused a considerable problem and it took a lot of work to get it resolved.

The only other problem was that people wanted to donated non-clothing items. I chose to accept only clothes because I was concerned about storing an excessive amount of items for the next 2 weeks until the DI truck came to town. I didn't get a lot of non-clothing items at the actual swap, but I did get a lot of inquiries about it beforehand.

Divine Nature

For my "Divine Nature" 10-hour Value Project, I got the idea to make cupcakes for each of the girl's birthdays (and bring them to the Mutual closest to their birthday). I plan the cupcakes based on the girls favorite color, flavors, candies, interests, etc. I spent about 2-4 hours on each birthday, depending on the amount of cupcakes I would have to make (when the Mutual when fall on a combined YM/YW activity date, I would make cupcakes for everyone instead of just the YW)

Here are some of the examples of cupcakes that I've done:

Harry Potter "Snitch" cupcakes

"Heath Bar cupcakes" with caramel frosting and chocolate ganache

Mini candy cupcakes on top of regular cupcakes

Other things involved in this project are:

• Making a list of young womens' birthdays (and keeping track of what birthdays are next)

• Making Gluten-free cupcakes (for gluten-free kids in the ward, if applicable)