Fit For the Race New Beginnings

For New Beginnings this year, we saw the theme Fit For the Race here… and RAN with it!  We all worked together and were able to pull everything together in just a few weeks after getting called as a new presidency!  THANK YOU to Sarah, Jenny, Alena, Natalie, Rhonda, Heather, and Erin for your amazing talents and time spent to organize and carry out this event.

Our Amazing Bishop created a logo for us, which we used for the invitations, decorations, programs, race packets, and even water bottle labels. 

You have permission to use the logo above, and i even have it in a few other colors as well.  The designs below are just for examples, I purchased the digital papers and embellishments from etsy at ThisToo Designs/ThisToo Designs, digiscrap delights, and DewDrop Digitals if you want to duplicate them.

The Beehive girls spent a class activity helping us by decorating race packets, designing and painting a big sign for the entry area, and attaching our water bottle labels with packing tape.

As the Young Women arrived, they each stopped by the Packet Pick-Up table to “register” and pick up their race folder.  Check out that awesome sign the girls made!  Each folder was labeled with a girl’s name.  The contents of each folder were:

2013 “team” roster

“All About Me” form (to use for spotlights throughout the year)

2013 yw calendar at a glance
Mini Strength of Youth pamphlet

Bookmark with overview of value items from skit

Stride gum with “Lengthen your Stride” quote

Jenny Phillips CD

Race Bib (got them donated, extras from a race)

Just inside the doors to the cultural hall we repurposed some balloon topiary poles into a starting line using fabric bunting banners and balloons of course.  We taped the word START onto the ground beneath.  

Then we used blue painters tape to mark off a course with arrows to the finish line on the stage which was decorated in white with pictures of the Savior.

The refreshment table was decorated with the cute bunting and some bright orange cones with balloons on dowels.  I wish I had taken more pictures of the completed look!

We had a combination of an ice cream bar and a trail mix bar and it really turned out delicious.  There was something for everyone, from super healthy to sweet sugar rush!  And of course the cute water bottles for thirst quenching.

For the program, we started off singing “I Love to See the Temple” and then our YW President kicked off the evening with a great talk based on our Fit For the Race theme.

Each age level of girl participated in the program; Our 4 Beehives stood up together and gave a few training tips on how they stay on the right path with things like good music and service.

Next our Mia Maids did a fabulous job performing a skit we wrote… they added a bit of their own flare and really made it great!  The skit compared different items you need in a physical running race to a value you need to compete in the race of life in order to return to our Father in Heaven.  You can find the skit here.

The Laurels came prepared with spotlights for each of the girls who will be turning 12 this year and entering Beehives, it was so fun to see the personalities shining through for each of them.  After their spotlight each upcoming Beehive received a draw-string bag (found at the dollar store) that contained items from the skit representing the values.  

We also had a Mother/Daughter duo talk about “teamwork” and working on their personal progress together.

Our Bishop gave some closing remarks which were truly inspiring and told the story about Derek Redmond, the Olympian who tore his hamstring 150 meters into the 400 meter race.  Watch the amazing video on youtube... makes me cry everytime.

For the closing song we had a musical number sung by the young women and leaders called In That Holy Place by Sally DeFord.  You can find it here on her website.

We hope this helps someone else!  We had a great time putting it together.  There are lots of great talks to use for inspiration, including The Race of Life by Thomas S Monson.

Also, I framed a few inspirational running quotes and placed them around the room and on the race folders, there are so many to choose from!  Here are a few we used:

"The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare" -NYC Marathon winner Juma Ikangaa

"life is a marathon, not a sprint"

"Find Joy in the journey" - Thomas S Monson

"The more we devote ourselves to the pursuit of holiness and happiness the less likely we will be on a path to regrets." - Dieter F Uchtdorf

And I love this one found here (see photo below) ... goes perfectly with personal progress!