Girls Camp

Girls Camp is always so great, but it requires months and months of preparation.  This year was the first camp I was in charge of as Stake YW president so I was kind of nervous, but I didn't need to be.  With Heidi Payne as Camp Director and Kathleen Hofman and Stacey George as her assistants it was bound to be wonderful! These are truly great ladies, and I love serving with them.

 

Maren and Kyleigh Hatch

This was Maren's 6th and last year at camp, and she and her 6th year friends made it such a great experience!  They were great examples and welcomed everyone into their group.  They were happy and fun, but serious and spiritual when they needed to be.  Basically, they were wonderful leaders, and the next group will have a tough time filling their shoes!

Emma and Kyleigh Hatch

The lake at Camp Cumorah is beautiful and gets better every year.  It started out swampy and few years ago, and the girls called it the Plake (plague lake), but now it's nice.

 The girls had so much fun kayaking, swimming, and jumping off of the swing.

Jessica Tolman and Lauren Holmstead

Whitney Porter and Lauren Holmstead

Dayzha Groesbeck, Maren, Maddy Sorensen, Macie Cannon, Chelsey Cannon, Sarah Hibbert, Whitney P

The skits were great this year, and the girls had so much fun being silly in them.  Emma was Little Mermaid in a Disney Anonymous skit.  She was a hoarder!

Laura Riley, Mary Call, Ashley Lance, Jessica Tolman, Emma,   ?  , Chelsey Cannon

Macey Cannon, Maddy Sorensen, Sarah Hibbert, Sarah Reddish, Maren, Regan Calder

 Maren was part of a team of scientists studying the effects of an experimental drug on a group of psychiatric patients. Pretty ridiculous!

Ashelee Rasmusson (Stake Secretary), ?-craft assistant, Heidi Hodge (Stake 1st Counselor), Heidi Payne, Stacey George

 The stake leaders had a skit, too, and we were pretty funny.  We did a revised version of The Fresh Prince of BelAir.  We were pretty goofy trying to rap, but it was fun.

Kathleen Hofman, Char Tovey, Elise and Pauline Anderson (Stake 2nd Counselor)

We had great ladies who planned and prepared the most delicious dinners each night!  Pauline and Elise had to leave on the second day because their 13 year old nephew died in a diabetic coma.  We missed them but were glad they could be with their family.

Our stake has a high percentage of non-member and inactive girls who attend, so we wanted to make sure our camp was centered on preaching the gospel and not just having fun.  We decided to have our theme focused on the Plan of Salvation.  The stake leaders and 6th year girls had t-shirts with this design, and the girls had an opportunity to earn a pin with the design by explaining the Plan of Salvation to three different people at camp.  It was a big hit!  We also had a Hold to the Rod activity where we blindfolded the girls and had very effective temptors take them from the rope, their rod.  It was very effective and really impacted the girls.  We have heard from so many girls, leaders, and parents that it was a wonderful spiritual experience for everyone.

The symbols show our premortal life, birth, earth life with an astrisk that says "You Are Here," spirit paradise and prison, death, resurrection, and the degrees of glory.

Front: Amy Bakes, Eliza Kener  Back: Emma Symons, Lauren Holmstead, Sarah Reddish, Maren Symons

Camp was a great success, and now we'll start preparing for an equally wonderful 2015 camp!