A few weeks ago I hosted our LDS Ward Night of Excellence. I decided to go with Live Life Anchored. Our night was an simple evening with information about ships and sailing and how they relate to the Gospel. I hope each girl walked away for more confidence knowing that our Savior is there at all times. And that we each need to be Anchored in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Our invites were pretty basic. I just add the text I wanted. Check out the Anchored Invitation printable that has 4 invites to a page. You can use photo shop or a program like Picmonkey to add your own text.
For those with photo shop or elements, I used these two fonts: Love ya Like Sister and Sail
Everyone was welcomed as they walked in.
We started with all the basic opening exercises. Then we divided up into stations.
The girls each picked up a small metal tin when starting the evening. Each tin had a colored dot on the bottom to tell them where to start I got from Michaels. We had 6 stations to rotate through. We spent 3 minutes at each station. Our stations were different parts of the ship. each station had a little gift for each girl to pickup as they finished the station.
To decorate we used sailing flags and crepe paper tassels. Our sailing flags spelled out words through out the room. We spelled words like Young Women, Desserts and Flags.
I found some sketches online that I though represented my stations well. The only one not shown is my ballast station. I totally forgot to take a picture. I printed them as architect prints at staples. I got 2 per page and then put them on foam core from the dollar store. I think it cost me like $8 to do all of them.
Here is the key to the flag station, large sailing print, Anchor and sails images and the Ballast and Rutter/ Wheel and the sailing flag banners we used. We spelled flags, desserts and Young Women.
Our 6th station was the girls projects they had been working on.
You can find my Young Women Value banners in my Night of Excellence post from last year. They are a Free Printable!
We made a simple name card that the girls wrote there name on to show who’s project it was.
Anchor Charm– Anchor station
Initial charm– Flag station
Flag charm- 1/4 inch ribbon/Hobby Lobby-Flag station
Hand wrapped pearls- Ballast station
Cotton Ribbon- Hobby Lobby- Sails station
Vintage Boat charm and Printable– Wheel and Rutter station
Lighthouse charm– Final speaker
Ball Chain– Final speaker
I used the charms as a way to keep girls interested. The dot on the tin referred to a station to start at. Each station had a Laurel at it talking about the function of the boat section they had. We did not use any kind of religious likeness when talking about the function of each part of the ship. The girls simply talked about how that part of the boat functioned and its purpose. At the end of 3 minutes the girls took a charm designated to that station. Placed it in there tin and moved to the next station.
After rotating through each station we brought the girls and parents back and had a musical number. The girls sang “Anchor Me” by Jenny Phillips. They did an amazing job. I gave this one to my girls. I just told them here you are in charge make it great! And they did. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the room.
After the Musical number I gave the closing remarks. I felt like this Night of Excellence was my baby. It had come to me through inspiration. My Heavenly Father knows my talents and inspires me to use them in the best way I can.
The Night came about from one simple thought and then it evolved to be what it became. I started by asking the girls what they had learned about ships. Was there anything they thought was interesting.
I got a few answers and we discussed them. I used this power point, to help illustrate or emphasize what each station meant spiritually. I also added a Mormon Message about having
A Secured Anchor in life.Here is what I came up with,
Wheel and Rutter- Vintage Sailing ship charm– These are our compass. They help us steer where we want to go. Make a plan now. Setting sail with no where to go sets us up for failure and opens us up to Satan’s plan.
Sails- Cotton ribbon tie– Goals. Throwing up the sails won’t get us where we want to go unless we know where to place them. Setting goals and pondering what is best for us will help us to make good decisions and help us achieve what we are trying to get. We had recently had a goal setting night before school started.
Ballast- Hand wrapped Pearl charm– Balance in church life and school. When we are off balance we are allowing Satan to get into our lives.
Communication Flags-Initial Charm and Flag Charm- Communication with our Savior is key. Tell him everything. Pour your hear out to him and tell him your needs and concerns. He knows each of us by name and when necessary he will step in and help carry our burdens. IF we only talk to him!
Anchored- Anchor charm- How firm is our foundation? When times get rough we set down anchor and weather the storm. Always knowing our Savior is there to help us.
Light of the Savior- Lighthouse Charm If we only look up we can find the light of the Savior, no matter where we are.
I used these quotes and talks to illustrate my point of each charm. In the end we gave each girl the Lighthouse poem and charm along with some the quotes in tiny size laminated for them to put in there scriptures on in there room.
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| sailing quotes used from LDSLiving.org and FLICKr |
The flags behind the dessert table spell the word Desserts.
For dessert we served a full Banana Split bar. We called them “Banana Boats”. I found these adorable boat shaped bowls online and just had to have them! The ladies I work with are kinda over achievers. We pre scooped the ice cream and re-froze it to make the serving go smoother. We had all kinds of toppings and treats. The girls and parents had a blast!
Each girl left that night with a necklace, reminder quotes and hopefully thinking about how she can become closer to her Savior.
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Where did you get the vintage boat charms?
Thank you,
Chris Bostwick
I made them. The picture is in my post and the charms were from Hobby Lobby.
Could you send me the sailing quotes individually so I could print an 8X10. Thanks
Would you possibly send me the Live Life Anchored print at the beginning of the article. The one in the right hand upper corner just under the heading to this page…..it has the red stripes, saying in the middle, and anchor with red stripes at the bottom? I was able to download other pieces, but not that one…….Thanks so much!!!
I love this Idea, thank you for sharing! Where did you get you pearl charms?
I purchased the pearls at Joann’s and used metal jewelry pins to make the loops.
I LOVE this idea! I love the idea of the stations. We are going to use this for our YW in excellence. Do you still have the prints that you used in your power point? If so would you mind sending me them? I would like to print them as 8×10’s.
Sorry for the delay. The pictures were poor sizing above a 3×2 or digital image. So they only look good on a Power point.
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you sharing your time and talents with everyone. By doing this, you have saved those of us who are less than stellar at creating but kind of capable of recreating. Thank you for your willingness to help us all along. I think what you’ve done is fantastic!
Thank you so much for your kind comments. I love making things and sharing them with the world and the girls I serve. Thank you so much for supporting my blog!
I Love this and thank you so much for your willingness to share. I’m new to this calling and feeling VERY overwhelmed. Anyway you could send me the talks the girls gave at each station, and your talk as well? I love this and think I could tweek it to make it work for my small group of girls.