YW/RS SERVICE AUCTION: - Last night we went to
a combines activity for YW and RS. It was
a service auction. In both RS and YWs, they've been talking about doing
compassionate service. They asked each of the ladies and YW to
write
down a service they'd be willing to do for someone. Last night, as we
arrived
we were each given a paper which helped us figure the amount of money
we
earned to use at the service auction. For example, if we had gone
visiting
teaching this month, we got $20.00. The Young women earned $10.00 for
each
value they had signed something off on this month; a trip to the temple
was worth $25.00 and making your bed that day was worth $15.00.
It
was possible to earn up to $400.00. After we had our sums totalled,
they
had an auctioneer auction off the services. I ended up purchasing
"one piano performance--good for any kind of performance any
time"
"one singing performance--any time anyoccasion" (these young ladies will be
performing
a number in my gospel Doctrine class Sunday!) and "1 hour of work time
to be spent doing anything." My daughter purchased "1 batch
of chocolate chip cookies," "1 batch of cookies (any kind)" and "2
hours
pulling weeds" (She rejoiced when she heard that one
announced.
She hates weeding! There were some items that were silly (will
fill
water balloons for your FHE activity) and others that were really fun,
viz. "a candlelight dinner for two". There was one that
struck
me really strongly though. Towards the end, the auctioneer picked out a
paper that said, "I'll be your friend." I thought, "How much is
this
worth? How much would I pay to have another friend?" I
wondered
who it was that put this in, what person in the ward would offer their
friendship for sale. The bidding went quite high, and when it was
over I asked the lady who bought it, who the offer was from. We have a
woman in our ward in her mid-fifties who lives with her parents and has
the mental age of a 7 year old. She was the person who offered her time
and her friendship, she offered everything she had to give. I
think
that ultimately, the result of this activity will be to bringthe two groups (the RS and the YW) closer
together.
They want to make it an annual event. SERVICE SCAVENGER HUNT: - When I was in YW I
set up a "Service Scavenger Hunt" with my neighbours.
I had the girls meet at my house so that we would not be too late
starting.
I split the girls into 2's and gave them each a list to take to the
houses
onmy street, the first team back having completed all
the tasks would be the winners. I made blue ribbons for them,
then
treated the girls to a dessert pizza that I had baking while they were
gone. The services on the list were things like...fold a load of
laundry; load the dishwasher; sweep the kitchen floor; vacuum the
living room and hallway; and so on. When the chore was completed
they had to get it signed off then go to another house. Only one chore
could be done per home. It was great fun and took about 45
minutes
to complete. The girls loved it, any all of my non-member
friends
said they had never met such good kids. You might give it a
try.
Have fun inYW! SCHOOL PAINTING: - This summer we are going to
volunteer to paint the school's playground
equipment. It's a great project because it doesn't matter if we
are
too neat! Our school district is providing the paint and
brushes.
They are happy to have the volunteers. The youth like doing
this because they attended the schools and it gives them a chance to
give
something back. SERVICE SCAVENGER HUNT: - For this idea, CLICK
HERE FEED THE HOMELESS: - If you live in Salt Lake
you can go on Sunday mornings to feed the Homeless. We went as a
combined
YM/YW and if was very rewarding. You just show up at 7am sharp on 5th
south
4th west and Jenny will tell you exactly what to do. If you have
questions
email me. Sonja QUILTS: - The YW in my ward made two quilts (our
ward
is quite small), and when they were done, we took the quilts to the
women's
shelter and took a tour and presented them with the quilts. They are in
need of a lot of supplies. Kinsey BABYPROOF A HOME: - We babyproofed the home
of a younger single sister in the ward who has a 1 yr.old. We asked if we could use her home to
teach
our girls how to babyproof. I watched the clearance racks for a
few
months and picked up cabinet locks, outlet covers, etc.. for a
reasonable
cost. The night of the activity, each girl had a check-list, and
we went through it item by item. We either babyproofed, or marked
on the copy we left for the mom if there was something we could not
do.
We finished the night by crawling around to see her house from the
baby's
point of view to make sure we hadn't missed anything. It was an
enjoyable
evening and a worthwhile service project! Jennifer BAPTISM BOOKS: - We put together Baptism books
for 8 yr olds getting baptized. We made up pages about baptism, about
covenants
made, pages for them to glue in their picture, a copy of the program,
some
pictures of the Savior, and some fun activity pages for them to do
puzzles
or draw. All relating to baptism. Then we covered the little books with
report covers. They turned out very nice as we did most of the pictures
and pages on the computer. We put on the back "Made for you, with
love.
From the Mia Maids" and the date. The Primary kids seemed to really
like
them and the girls were really proud. I have an example book here at
home
if anyone is interested in further detail.Tawnie PUPPET SHOW FOR HOSPITAL KIDS: - We made puppets out
of socks, felt, ribbon, etc. then built a puppet show
stand ( the puppet show stand was a laurel project) then we performed
for
group of kids at a hospital. Before going to hospital, invited primary
kids to Young Women's activity night and had a show for them. Tawnie HOMELESS SHELTER: - On the 5th Tue of the month (
we have about 4 a year), we calendar to go down to the homeless
shelter
and serve dinner as a volunteer group. The girls are humbled by this
and
enjoy serving them. They like to go and do this. Tawnie VOLUNTEER SERVICE: - Volunteer at a
library,
hospital, community center, or senior center. SERVICE PROJECT: - This was a Stake project.
The Bishops in the wards found out about people who needed service and
submitted names and projects and then we contacted the people to see
how
long the project might be. The people usually provided all
the cleaning products and vacuums. At one home we
mowed
a yard and weeded a garden, washed windows at another and
vacuumed
the upstairs and downstairs, put mulch on our stake patriarch's garden,
moved old wood from behind the garage, cut branches from an old
tree,
scraped and painted a house (one level) washed windows at a nursing
home
where we had ward members, pulled weeds and tied up tomato plants
onto stakes in a garden, and picked
strawberries.
We also raked grass after being mowed and put it in bags. We went
to a park and cut out bushes they needed trimmed. We also painted a
fence.
We had over 300 kids and we found projects for all of them. NEW PAVILIONS Two years ago in Logan our stake youth
conference had the youth build two pavilions for two separate
parks.
One was a picnic table shelter, but the other was a regular building -
enclosed, pumbling and concrete and all. We had the builders
teach
the youth and really do it and not just stand back and watch the adults
do it. I was in charge of 20 kids and we were on the
roofing
crew and we were up there putting black tar paper on and shingles
and everything. That was quite the project. We had a city
willing
to provide all the materials and we provided all free labor.
Somehow
is all worked out legally and no injuries other than fingers hammered
and
sun burn.
SERVICE