Interesting Experience

In my last Post I mentioned that I was going to chaperon a Youth Conference.  We went to the conference and brought a quilt that we made out of sheets to be tied.  The Kids were all asked to donate items such as used children's clothes, spare change, toilet paper and hygiene items.  The different wards donated quilts to be tied.  Service projects consisted of writing the missionaries and service men/women, writing testimonies in Books of Mormon,and tying quilts.  800 youth and leaders from all over Georgia, Alabama and Florida came together on the Troy University campus to learn, grow, and render service.  It was a wonderful experience that my children and I both were glad we had.

The Service project that I was asked to help with was tying quilts.  We did not have any frames and the youth were to hold the quilt taut while they tied it.  This was a team building exercise. Basically we used a human frame to hold the quilt.  So 8-10 kids held the quilt tight and two kids tied and cut as the others held.  The plan was to rotate the kids around each getting a chance to hold and to tie.  It turned out that tying it was not as easy as we thought it was going to be and many teams opted to have the same people do the tying so they would be able to finish it.

The room we did this project in did not have any air conditioning.  The temperatures were in the 100's and there were over 400 people in this room.  It was very hot and very sticky and every one was very uncomfortable.  Yet the youth did not complain nor try to get out of the assignments.

There were some complications with this project.  First the youth that were suppose to oversee this project didn't really know what to do.  So as the Adult leaders had to step in and take over.  But we mostly just directed.  The youth did actually run the project once they knew what they were doing. The second problem was that the room was hard to find so many of the youth went to the other location and had to be redirected to the room we were in. 

Then the needle for tying the quilts were the wrong type.  They had tapestry needles instead of yarn darners.  The needles were blunt and we couldn't push them through the fabric. So we had to figure out how to make them work. It was suggested we make a hole and then drawn the yarn thought the holes with the needles.  I shot that idea down.  I felt that we would weaken the fabric and open up the possibility for tearing the quilts.  The this leader came to our rescue.  He pulled out a file and started sharpening the needles.  Someone else had a file on his leather man and we had 2 people sharpening needles.  I knew Killian had a file on his leather man and I sent him to the other location to sharpen the needles there. 

  

After a couple of hours of the heat and miserable conditions we decided to give the kids a break.  We told them that they could go. But several of the groups wanted to stay and finish.  This group had a late start but stayed until they finished.  It was interesting to see how many of the boys really got into this.  I was afraid that they would have thought it too silly or girly.  I think the boys were more into it than the girls. 


I was a wonderful experience for all of those involved.  Watching those kids worked together to get the assignments done was inspiring.   The team building exercise of tying quilts was successful.  Teams were truly built, the kids recognized their strengths and those of the others and utilized each others strengths to get the job done.  No egos were involved just the desire to do a good job and get it done.  That in and of itself was wonderful to witness.

I loved the experience I had at Youth Conference and look forward to having it again.  It was really rewarding to see the youth care about something other than themselves and work as a team.