Arise and Shine Camp 2012

I am the Young Women Camp director for the girl's in my ward.  This is my second year and this year we are going to Stake Camp.  I know that I have gained a greater appreciation for all of my past Young Women leaders and those that still serve as this job is a daunting task that requires more than I could have ever imagined.  With that said, I have never had a calling that has had more rewarding life lessons and experiences than that of the camp director.  It really helps to have an awesome assistant who is for sure my better half, she keeps me centered and from going nuts which I tend to do, and a Young Women Presidency that is so supportive that they trust us enough to let us run with our ideas and trust that we will help accomplish their goals for the year and help the girl's continue to grow and progress in their journey to womanhood.  

This year the camp theme is "You're Happily Ever After."  We decided to merge the 2012 YW theme "Arise and Shine Forth" with the camp theme and came up with "Arise and Shine Forth, that you may find your Happily Ever After."  The stake has asked us to have each ward represent a country with a temple that may stand as a beacon of light to those who live their.  We have chosen the country of Spain, which has only 1 temple in the capital city of Madrid.  Other things we have been asked to do is:

1. Represent a YW value - ours is Good Works and the color is Yellow
2. Decorate our camp to depict our country
3. Share interesting facts and stories about our country and our Temple
4. Come up with a skit and a song to present to the entire camp
5. Share a cultural activity with the entire camp
6. Design and create a flag to represent our camp and the country we represent

We chose the country of Spain because we knew people who had visited there so we thought we could glean some info. from them.  It also is a country so diverse and so rich in heritage, there was only 1 Temple for us to focus on and when I think of Spain, I think of sunshine, bright colors and fun fiestas!! As we started to plan this all out, I was struck with a thought.  And as I add to it more and more, I know that it was meant to be. 

We decided to focus our efforts on the sunshine part (that worked well with the Yellow value of Good Works we chose to represent) and I found a song that I fell in love with instantly when I heard it.  The melody is fun and the message is simple, yet profound.  

Myself and one of our YW are going to accompany the girls on our acoustic guitars.  It should sound awesome......!!!  

We chose this song because we are reminded to Shine Forth by Elder Utchdorf who shared this quote from James Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, “Those who bring sunshine‍ to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.”

I love that, and feel it inspirational to learn how to spread sunshine and happiness in the way we live and conduct ourselves.  Therefore, our camp will be decorated to show off the Sunshine in Spain and in ourselves. 

Our skit.....a 17 piece Mariachi Band singing a song from Nacho Libre .  Here is the clip of the song from the movie:

The lyrics are as follows: 

i am singing at the party
i am singing its my turn to sing at the party
everyone is dancing happy party
but ramses is not dancing he does not dance at the party
at night i play my games i go to sleep i think im ramses
the people in the streets
they give him treats they give him candies
will he ever loes we'll never know he'll never fight me
ramses is the greatest even though he rymes with panties
ramses number one he knows the secrets of desire
(trumpet noise)
ramses number one he puts the people all on fire
(trumpet noise)
ramses number one he likes to run down to the playa
(trumpet noise) ...........

We changed it to fit our needs a bit.  Our version is as follows:

i am singing at this camp party

i am singing its our turn to sing at this camp party 

we are all dancing and all laughing at this happy party 

but why you are all staring and not dancing at this party 

at night we play our games and we can't sleep 'cause we are laughing

the people we came with 

they give us treats they give  us candies

will we ever sleep we'll never know 'cause we're girl's camping

camping is the greatest even though we may look funny and keep laughing

We are having fun sometimes we not know what we're doing

(trumpet noise)

we are laughing lots at things we not be even knowing

(trumpet noise)

but that's just what ya do when there's a lot of girl's camping.....

(trumpet noise) ...........

 (I will make sure to add a clip of our girls in action.)

So we are off to a good start.  We have begun making the decorations for the camp.  I will share with you on the next posting, and the rest of the agenda will take shape in the next couple of weeks.  I would love to hear your ideas and feedback........ and thank you for joining with us on our camping journey.