175th Anniversary

The women's organization in my church is celebrating it's 175th anniversary this year. Pretty dang exciting! I was asked to plan the stake event for the party since I know my way around a party. I was able to gather with many women in our stake to ensure that the Deci-semi-septi-centenial anniversary was as fabulous as the women who claim membership (FYI: there isn't really a membership process: be an adult women who wants to help others, and you can be part of the Mormon Relief Society:~) As luck would have it, our Stake R.S. President is friends with Elaine S. Dalton and so our guest speaker was taken care of... and the rest was up to our committee. We handled the advertising, food, decor, music, and an epic service project: 175 purse kits containing tampons, pads, pantyliners, lip gloss, nail clippers, chocolate, and lotion. Boom, baby. Those are on their way to our local women's shelter (the original plan was to send them to our local refugee center, but given the state of refugee's and our government restrictions, the Refugee Center their incoming numbers were up in the air, and that they couldn't take any donations at this time: sad.) Anyways, the big day was Saturday, March 11th, 2017. We started set-up early. and were done right around 11:00am - which worked out well since that's when I launched into a migraine. Major lame. I came home and tried to sleep it off. As a blessing I was well enough to attend the event (4:00pm start time.) With over 350 in attendance, I vote the 175th anniversary was a smashing success, thanks to a wonderful committee, and all those who carved out time on their Saturday to attend.

Ryan (an unofficial committee member) designed this fabulous invite. I just love it sooo much!

Getting Ready!

We put together the purse kits in two separate areas of the building. Women either put a kit together, or wrote an inspirational note to go into the purses. Even women that were unable to attend the event were able to participate by donating items.  Busy women, busy lives, still make time to help!

Getting the event all set up.

Order of Operations:

Speaker

Service Project 

Dinner: Soup, rolls, salad and cupcakes

The decor was incredible! I love a sign that is too big and wonderful it's easy to read from 100 feet away!

Loads of cool quotes lined the room.

I wanted the pineapple sign to say "sweet on the inside... but acidic when necessary."

It was simple and fabulous.

Our Stake Relief Society President and me.

Sister Dalton and me after her talk.

Her adoring husband right behind her.

Getting those kids together! The purses and goodies were inside the giant green bags.

This was the message I wrote. It was made into a sticker and it went inside a small white gift box, an anniversary gift for each sister. The box contained Hershey's hugs and kisses, and loads of love.

Done and dusted.