Thursday, June 23, 2011

Youth Conference 2011






Our Las Vegas South Stake finally decided that Youth Conference 2011 would be held at SUU.

I can't imagine where that idea came from....Some crazy YW President may have been pitching the idea for 3 years running... :)



I was able to be involved in the planning of this spectacular & somewhat overwhelming event. We have some A M A Z I N G Stake Leaders & Stake Presidency who really let our Executive Youth Committee plan a majority of the event -- It was our task as leaders to assist them to make it happen. We started talking about 6 months ago.....and got closer & closer to our goal each month.


The theme for this year's conference was 'Beyond This Moment'. It was meant to remind our youth that the decisions they are making in their lives right now will effect many future events -- college education, serving a mission, marrying in the temple -- and to make sure to have a broader view of life than just the moment we live in now.


Some of our activities included:

SUU 'Amazing Race' / Scavenger Hunt

Skits, Fireside & S'mores @ Woods Ranch


Fireworks at the Utah Summer Games
One cute girl even asked me if we planned the fireworks just for our group -- why, yes, we did!




Service Project of painting wooden children's blocks



Workshops


One presented by an Institute teacher & one by my favorite father-in-law Don Marchant


Dance


Testimony Meeting


& lots of other crazy group games & good food!






This Youth Conference was planned perfectly...and executed the best way we could. It was crazy because some of plans fell apart at the last moment. But, our Plan B ALWAYS turned out better than our Plan A.



*We were scheduled to go to SUU's Sheepherders Cabin on Thursday evening. We found out Tuesday that it was too muddy. Instead, after some assistance from a best friend & best family member, we scheduled Woods Ranch. No mud & perfect parking. We had also been concerned about transporting 165 people up the canyon, figuring we would have to do it in shifts, with all the cars we brought from Las Vegas. Every seat was filled & we made it in 1 trip.



*There was a miscommunication for Friday dinner & no food was prepped for our group. Instead, SUU stepped up the plate & we spread out an order of 50 pizzas to 3 different pizza joints in Cedar City & had pizza in 30 minutes. The youth RAVED about the meal.



*Our speaker for Saturday morning got stuck in the bad weather in New York & his flight was cancelled. He was a gem & found 2 replacements who hit our theme home. They amazed me with short notice!



*I had spent HOURS working on a slideshow to show at the end of the dance Friday evening. 15 minutes to showtime & there isn't a power cord in sight for the projector. We ended the night sans slideshow. We were able to get it all together to show right after lunch, right before we hit the road on Saturday. It was probably best to end on that high!



I was delighted with this event. I loved the Youth Committee this year. I loved the Stake Leaders & Ward Leaders who were able to partake in my crazy love of SUU. Our Bishop, a BYU fan, even said at the end of the weekend he would definitely consider sending his daughters to SUU. Many youth came to talk to me about how to get to SUU in the future.



The icing on the cake for me was said by a Youth Committee member 3 hours into our event,


"How are we ever going to top this for next year's Youth Conference?"






Kelly [Stake YW President], me & Suzanne [Stake Young Womens & SUU alum]






Painted Mountain Ward w/Bishop Palacios & Virginia Palacios



My cute Young Women

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