This is a long, convoluted story, so stay with me as long as you can....
Last summer, Beth (also known as Aunt Beth around our house) was at Girls' Camp with me--she was the YW leader for the Saline girls (I don't think they had an actual ward camp director). While there, she found out that the woman who has been putting on Girls' Camp for the last five years was "retiring" or asking to be released, and honestly, after five years, she totally deserves to be released....with a trumpet fanfare, a celebration of her stamina, and a cheque.... So Beth decides that she wants to be the next stake Girls Camp director, and she tells everyone within hearing distance, including the current stake YW president (who also happens to be her friend). She also mentions to me that when called, she's going to submit my name as an assistant, reminding me that this is what we promised each other when I first moved back into the area--we would call each other into a presidency if possible.
A couple of problems with this plan:
1. I was serving with the young women in our ward, and only the devil himself would be able to rip that calling away from me ... or a bishopric who has decided that our presidency is done....
2. I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be in the area during the summer of 2020, but I had no idea, seeing as John was in the middle of his hearing proceedings.
3 (and maybe the biggest problem of all): Beth hasn't served in a presidency (as far as I know), and she isn't an organized person. I only envisioned a sinking ship when I thought of coming aboard the Girls Camp 2020 steamer.
Well, as you can imagine, the stake YW president jumped at Beth's willingness to take on Girls' Camp and had her called a couple of months after camp ended. And in promised form (bless Beth's heart for actually doing this, because I've had flaky "friends" through the years who promised the same thing but then pointedly left me out of a presidency when the time came), Beth submitted my name as an assistant camp director. I felt a little bad about this when the bishopric asked me if I would be willing to be Primary chorister before they knew this stake calling was coming down the chute, and I was actually hoping they would call me before it did, but in the end, the stake got to the bishopric fast enough that I was called as an assistant camp director.
Unfortunately, the previous camp director had jumped ship when she found out that the camp they had used for the past five years was being turned into a quarry...and she made no future plans for 2020 Girls Camp. And who knew that camps are reserved for than a year in advance, so that when Beth stepped into the calling in October, there were no available camps left in the state of Michigan?
Yeah, Beth spent weeks driving all over the lower half of Michigan and the top half of Ohio looking for a camp. She found one eventually (a "Christian" camp that was hesitant in the beginning to take us Mormons), but it's not ideal. However, I was impressed with her go-get-edness about finding a camp.
Having worked at Interlochen, and having been president of several organizations in the church, and having just finished up being in a YW presidency where we noticed the lack of camp information coming down the pipeline just months before, I knew we were going to have SO MUCH to do to prepare. Beth basically had no idea.
So, I easily slipped on my organizational pair of trousers (probably the only piece of clothing that still fits me) and brought my laptop to our first official meeting. Good thing too because nobody else was taking notes. However, Beth had told us to come prepared with ideas for the theme of camp which I did. When she gave her presentation though about what she thought it should be, I got goosebumps and knew that she was serving in the perfect place at the perfect time. She had been studying the 2020 youth theme for the church, "Go and Do" based on 1 Nephi 3:7, and she wanted to take it further with the girls. "Go and Do...for I know...." covering areas where the girls could strengthen their testimonies AND their knowledge by learning how to do things. I mean, knowledge is the key to power, and we want to teach the girls how to unlock that door (again, following the church's motto this year with doors). It was a brilliant idea, and I knew it was perfect.
But then when Beth was asked to come to a stake meeting with the ward YW presidencies this past week and give a little presentation about camp, I knew the questions would come hard and fast so I got us prepared. I sent texts out to our former ward camp director (who is now the stake Relief Society president), to my former YW president, and to the current YW president, asking what questions they would want answered at this meeting. I expected one or two, but I literally got a list of questions. Like, in essay form. Thankfully, I did this a week in advance, and then Beth decided we should meet so that we could review those questions and come prepared. Goooooooood idea.....
When we met for that meeting, how grateful Beth was that I had done what I had done. Beth, for the most part, just sees camp and envisions us all having Kumbaya moments around the camp fire in our pajamas. She doesn't see the registration forms and moneys that need to be collected, and the insurance information that needs to be filled out, and the scheduling for every moment of the five days we will be there, and the food allergies, and the girls with mental illness, and the bad weather that can happen But to her credit, she knows that I see all of those things, and as she says, "This is why I called you, Larisa," and then she smiles and gives me a little back scratch or hug ;-)
So we spent two hours hashing out as many answers to the questions as we could, and I told her (and the other assistant who is basically worthless) that I would have a handout ready to go for the meeting. She said she would bring a copy of the camp map (which I ended up finding and printing on the back of the handout), and that she would go early and draw a map of the camp on a chalkboard so she could reference it during her presentation (she ended up coming 15 minutes late, and I was the one running around the church in search of a dry erase marker for the rolling whiteboard, and the one drawing the map).
The morning of the meeting, I asked her if we should come prepared with some fun little treat for the women to remember our presentation. Thinking of camp, I suggested granola bars, or a bag of trail mix. I mean, don't you love it when someone has a really great "take home" at a boring meeting, and as you drive home, you're eating it and your opinion about that really boring meeting changes a bit? ;-). Well, Beth didn't like those ideas, but told me that she would make and bring "camp cookies". I asked her if she had time for that, and she said it wouldn't be hard. This was only hours before the meeting, and I know she's super busy with her four kids, but I said okay.
So I got everything ready, I showed up early, and Beth wasn't there. Like I mentioned, she showed up late. And she told me that her cookies were "hideous". Yes, HIDEOUS. I had no idea what she meant, but she was asking me if she should serve them. Not knowing the gravity of the cookie situation, I figured if she brought them, how bad could they really be?
So Beth gets up to do her little presentation. Just like with the hula last summer, she was completely unprepared, and it took me sitting in front of her to constantly remind her of what she wanted to cover. However, in the same way that I am called because of my organizational abilities, she is called because of her. Yes, Beth has been called because of Beth. She got up and was completely self-deprecating, and she jumped right into the cookies (not something I would have done). She explained that she had made sugar cookies--she only had Christmas cookie cutters, so the mitten was the only appropriate crossover with camp--and she told us that
they turned out so badly that she submitted a picture of them to "Nailed It", a site that mocks people's attempts to recreate Pinterest ideas. She then quickly explained that our theme for the summer was "Go and Do...for I Know", and she had decided that she would write that in sugar icing on the cookies. However, she couldn't fit that entire phrase on a cookie, so she had abbreviated the theme to GAD FIK. Give it a minute. Got it? I'll give you a couple of seconds to wipe the tears from your eyes and stop laughing before we continue....
She knew she was in trouble when one of her boys came in and saw the cookies and asked, "What does FIK mean?"
Oh my gosh, we were ALL laughing our heads off. Like, sides hurting, peeing our pants laughing about it. But it was such a great opening to her little presentation that nobody was going to take her down or make her look bad after that. In fact, during her presentation she told all of the women there, "Don't ever hesitate to ask me anything or give me suggestions. I'm super humble, and I'm willing to listen to anything."
And that, my friends, is a saleswoman. She had the women eating out of the palm of her hand after that. Yes, she was completely prepared for what the presidencies wanted to know, and I could tell they were impressed, but I guarantee that nobody remembered that at the end of the night. Instead, they remembered HER.
When the meeting ended, I wanted to just see these monstrosities and grab one of the homemade rolls I could see from across the room. Beth stayed at our table, but I went up to the cookies. And there were so many women crowded around the cookies, taking pictures--I seriously couldn't believe it. And bless these two black women from Ypsi. They were obviously very humble women also, dressed in baggy sweatshirts with not much obvious money. One of them looked at me and said, "I was so impressed that she was willing to expose her faults." Sincerely. She meant it with every fiber of her being.
And I get it. This stake is so obsessed with perfection. Everyone who is called to any position in authority is white, skinny, rich and educated. I can only imagine how the country folk and the ghetto folk feel like outliers in this stake when even John and I feel like we won't ever have a place in it. But here is Beth. Crude, not perfect Beth, who was willing to bring her crazy, swearing-sounding cookies to a stake event and serve them. It struck a chord with the women there in only the best way.
And other women appreciated the humor in it all. Like I said, they were taking pictures of the cookies, and one of them said to me, "When the girls don't want to do something at camp, or don't think they can, we should just look them in the eye, point our finger at them and say, 'GAD FIK!'" ;-)
Yes, we were asked afterwards by the stake to submit a copy of our handout because it was so informative, and yes, Beth was singing my praises afterwards because she realized what a fool she would have looked like if she hadn't been prepared, but it's that Kennedy way of being that wins over the people in the end. I won't be here for much longer, but I'm going to give everything to Beth while I can so that she can be the best version of herself to the masses.
Last summer, Beth (also known as Aunt Beth around our house) was at Girls' Camp with me--she was the YW leader for the Saline girls (I don't think they had an actual ward camp director). While there, she found out that the woman who has been putting on Girls' Camp for the last five years was "retiring" or asking to be released, and honestly, after five years, she totally deserves to be released....with a trumpet fanfare, a celebration of her stamina, and a cheque.... So Beth decides that she wants to be the next stake Girls Camp director, and she tells everyone within hearing distance, including the current stake YW president (who also happens to be her friend). She also mentions to me that when called, she's going to submit my name as an assistant, reminding me that this is what we promised each other when I first moved back into the area--we would call each other into a presidency if possible.
A couple of problems with this plan:
1. I was serving with the young women in our ward, and only the devil himself would be able to rip that calling away from me ... or a bishopric who has decided that our presidency is done....
2. I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be in the area during the summer of 2020, but I had no idea, seeing as John was in the middle of his hearing proceedings.
3 (and maybe the biggest problem of all): Beth hasn't served in a presidency (as far as I know), and she isn't an organized person. I only envisioned a sinking ship when I thought of coming aboard the Girls Camp 2020 steamer.
Well, as you can imagine, the stake YW president jumped at Beth's willingness to take on Girls' Camp and had her called a couple of months after camp ended. And in promised form (bless Beth's heart for actually doing this, because I've had flaky "friends" through the years who promised the same thing but then pointedly left me out of a presidency when the time came), Beth submitted my name as an assistant camp director. I felt a little bad about this when the bishopric asked me if I would be willing to be Primary chorister before they knew this stake calling was coming down the chute, and I was actually hoping they would call me before it did, but in the end, the stake got to the bishopric fast enough that I was called as an assistant camp director.
Unfortunately, the previous camp director had jumped ship when she found out that the camp they had used for the past five years was being turned into a quarry...and she made no future plans for 2020 Girls Camp. And who knew that camps are reserved for than a year in advance, so that when Beth stepped into the calling in October, there were no available camps left in the state of Michigan?
Yeah, Beth spent weeks driving all over the lower half of Michigan and the top half of Ohio looking for a camp. She found one eventually (a "Christian" camp that was hesitant in the beginning to take us Mormons), but it's not ideal. However, I was impressed with her go-get-edness about finding a camp.
Having worked at Interlochen, and having been president of several organizations in the church, and having just finished up being in a YW presidency where we noticed the lack of camp information coming down the pipeline just months before, I knew we were going to have SO MUCH to do to prepare. Beth basically had no idea.
So, I easily slipped on my organizational pair of trousers (probably the only piece of clothing that still fits me) and brought my laptop to our first official meeting. Good thing too because nobody else was taking notes. However, Beth had told us to come prepared with ideas for the theme of camp which I did. When she gave her presentation though about what she thought it should be, I got goosebumps and knew that she was serving in the perfect place at the perfect time. She had been studying the 2020 youth theme for the church, "Go and Do" based on 1 Nephi 3:7, and she wanted to take it further with the girls. "Go and Do...for I know...." covering areas where the girls could strengthen their testimonies AND their knowledge by learning how to do things. I mean, knowledge is the key to power, and we want to teach the girls how to unlock that door (again, following the church's motto this year with doors). It was a brilliant idea, and I knew it was perfect.
But then when Beth was asked to come to a stake meeting with the ward YW presidencies this past week and give a little presentation about camp, I knew the questions would come hard and fast so I got us prepared. I sent texts out to our former ward camp director (who is now the stake Relief Society president), to my former YW president, and to the current YW president, asking what questions they would want answered at this meeting. I expected one or two, but I literally got a list of questions. Like, in essay form. Thankfully, I did this a week in advance, and then Beth decided we should meet so that we could review those questions and come prepared. Goooooooood idea.....
When we met for that meeting, how grateful Beth was that I had done what I had done. Beth, for the most part, just sees camp and envisions us all having Kumbaya moments around the camp fire in our pajamas. She doesn't see the registration forms and moneys that need to be collected, and the insurance information that needs to be filled out, and the scheduling for every moment of the five days we will be there, and the food allergies, and the girls with mental illness, and the bad weather that can happen But to her credit, she knows that I see all of those things, and as she says, "This is why I called you, Larisa," and then she smiles and gives me a little back scratch or hug ;-)
So we spent two hours hashing out as many answers to the questions as we could, and I told her (and the other assistant who is basically worthless) that I would have a handout ready to go for the meeting. She said she would bring a copy of the camp map (which I ended up finding and printing on the back of the handout), and that she would go early and draw a map of the camp on a chalkboard so she could reference it during her presentation (she ended up coming 15 minutes late, and I was the one running around the church in search of a dry erase marker for the rolling whiteboard, and the one drawing the map).
The morning of the meeting, I asked her if we should come prepared with some fun little treat for the women to remember our presentation. Thinking of camp, I suggested granola bars, or a bag of trail mix. I mean, don't you love it when someone has a really great "take home" at a boring meeting, and as you drive home, you're eating it and your opinion about that really boring meeting changes a bit? ;-). Well, Beth didn't like those ideas, but told me that she would make and bring "camp cookies". I asked her if she had time for that, and she said it wouldn't be hard. This was only hours before the meeting, and I know she's super busy with her four kids, but I said okay.
So I got everything ready, I showed up early, and Beth wasn't there. Like I mentioned, she showed up late. And she told me that her cookies were "hideous". Yes, HIDEOUS. I had no idea what she meant, but she was asking me if she should serve them. Not knowing the gravity of the cookie situation, I figured if she brought them, how bad could they really be?
So Beth gets up to do her little presentation. Just like with the hula last summer, she was completely unprepared, and it took me sitting in front of her to constantly remind her of what she wanted to cover. However, in the same way that I am called because of my organizational abilities, she is called because of her. Yes, Beth has been called because of Beth. She got up and was completely self-deprecating, and she jumped right into the cookies (not something I would have done). She explained that she had made sugar cookies--she only had Christmas cookie cutters, so the mitten was the only appropriate crossover with camp--and she told us that
She knew she was in trouble when one of her boys came in and saw the cookies and asked, "What does FIK mean?"
Oh my gosh, we were ALL laughing our heads off. Like, sides hurting, peeing our pants laughing about it. But it was such a great opening to her little presentation that nobody was going to take her down or make her look bad after that. In fact, during her presentation she told all of the women there, "Don't ever hesitate to ask me anything or give me suggestions. I'm super humble, and I'm willing to listen to anything."
And that, my friends, is a saleswoman. She had the women eating out of the palm of her hand after that. Yes, she was completely prepared for what the presidencies wanted to know, and I could tell they were impressed, but I guarantee that nobody remembered that at the end of the night. Instead, they remembered HER.
When the meeting ended, I wanted to just see these monstrosities and grab one of the homemade rolls I could see from across the room. Beth stayed at our table, but I went up to the cookies. And there were so many women crowded around the cookies, taking pictures--I seriously couldn't believe it. And bless these two black women from Ypsi. They were obviously very humble women also, dressed in baggy sweatshirts with not much obvious money. One of them looked at me and said, "I was so impressed that she was willing to expose her faults." Sincerely. She meant it with every fiber of her being.
And I get it. This stake is so obsessed with perfection. Everyone who is called to any position in authority is white, skinny, rich and educated. I can only imagine how the country folk and the ghetto folk feel like outliers in this stake when even John and I feel like we won't ever have a place in it. But here is Beth. Crude, not perfect Beth, who was willing to bring her crazy, swearing-sounding cookies to a stake event and serve them. It struck a chord with the women there in only the best way.
And other women appreciated the humor in it all. Like I said, they were taking pictures of the cookies, and one of them said to me, "When the girls don't want to do something at camp, or don't think they can, we should just look them in the eye, point our finger at them and say, 'GAD FIK!'" ;-)
Yes, we were asked afterwards by the stake to submit a copy of our handout because it was so informative, and yes, Beth was singing my praises afterwards because she realized what a fool she would have looked like if she hadn't been prepared, but it's that Kennedy way of being that wins over the people in the end. I won't be here for much longer, but I'm going to give everything to Beth while I can so that she can be the best version of herself to the masses.
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