PP - YWIE Pageant

One of my Laurels took on the challenge of developing and carrying out the YW Evening in Excellence this year.

Her idea was to have a Values Beauty Pageant, which was finally named the Personal Progress Pageant. She delegated responsibilities to each of the girls, and she followed up consistently. We have a small group, so it was easy to have each girl represent one value.

For our opening, the girls each wore a T-shirt in their value color, and jeans (school clothes in our area); they were introduced by our emcee, the girl that planned the activity, and told the audience which value they represented. The remainder of the evening, followed at typical "beauty contest" format. The girls did an opening dance choreographed by our organizer; we selected a number of songs (that were organized on CD with a short clip of music), and related it to our passage through YW. (music in italics)

"When we first come into YW, we're sad to leave our friends in Primary" - Beehive girls came onstage and waved back to "others"; "it's kind of scary, but then we get used to it"...Celebrate good times, Come on! "Then you get to do activities, and have fun with the other girls. We are a little unsure at first, but we finally learn to give it our all!" Hokey Pokey (you put your right hand in, you take your right hand out...you put your whole self in, you take your whole self out.....) We're always excited when we're finally old enough to go to Stake dances! And then - there are the guys - and sometimes that can be pretty scary!" Oh, Micky you're so Fine... (Girls get cut-out cardboard "guys" and pretend to dance with them.).

There were a number of fun "party" songs and they danced to a little of the Electric Slide.

The next scene was the "talent" portion of the show. Each girl showed her "crazy talent." One girl could rub her head, pat her stomach, and hop on one foot; another could make air visible (she blew bubbles); another girl was in track, and so she ran around the stage during the entire scene; another was into photography, so she was snapping everyone, and everything; another did a funny dance with her cousin; another could blow big bubblegum bubbles; and of course, one girl's talent was she could talk on her cell phone, home phone, and text on another cell phone, all at the same time (her dad was vigorously nodding his head!) ...Quite a laugh - with the idea being just "crazy" talents.

Then there was the swimsuit competition. Each girl showed off her value-colored swim suit - made by some seamstresses in our ward; the old-fashioned "bathing costumes" (dresses) complete with pantalets and mob caps! This was a big surprise for the parents and the girls weren't allowed to tell so that we could all have a good laugh. (I did have a few concerned moms coming to me saying "swimsuits????")

The final scene was the value-colored evening gown competition; the purpose of this was to show the girls they could find modest evening gowns. They came on stage and answered a pre-rehearsed question about their value, posed by the YW presidency.

Of course, everyone was crowned with party-favor crowns; we had roses for the parents to give their girls at the end for their surprise, and everyone enjoyed refreshments and seeing the girls' displays of their hard work.

This is a somewhat abbreviated version of the event, but perhaps you'll have a better idea.