LDS Church presents Young Womanhood Recognition Awards to local girls

Earlier this year, several young ladies belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints earned a special honor called the Young Womanhood Recognition Award, which is received after completing a program called “Personal Progress.”[caption id="attachment_10697" align="alignright" width="240"] Ashleigh Chambers[/caption]The program is available to young women, starting at age 12, who choose to participate. There are eight categories that must be completed, and each section is based on qualities and principles that the youth are encouraged to develop and use in day-to-day life.  These vibrant, lovely and cheerful young ladies have memorized the eight different categories, called the Values, and can list them off rapid-fire when asked.Editor’s note: This is part one of a series of four articles interviewing some of the Young Women who earned the award in 2015.Ashleigh and Samantha Chambers  Lovell 1st WardThese two siblings have both received their Young Womanhood Recognition Awards, and each had good things to say about the program. Older sister Ashleigh said that her favorite part was the huge amount of support she received from within her ward’s group of Young Women, and that they all encouraged and challenged each other during the program.[caption id="attachment_10698" align="alignright" width="225"] Samantha Chambers[/caption]Younger sister Samantha also had a great experience, saying, “I loved it.  The best part was learning about my future role as a mother and as a daughter of God.”  She does add that she “didn’t love how long it took, sometimes.”Both sisters chose the silver medallion, and Ashleigh’s award necklace has one other special accessory, the Honor Bee. This additional award, which is a small silver bee-shaped charm, “doesn’t take as long to get, but it seems just as hard to do” as the full program, said Ashleigh.  To get an honor bee, girls help others along the way to accomplish their own award. Ashleigh also said it improves the bond with the other girls.  “It helps them, you help the others reach their goals, and it helps you to become a leader in the future,” she said.Maddison Hocker  Cowley 2nd WardMaddison is 15 and has already achieved her medallion. She explained that, for each category, or “value,” there are eight to 10-hour projects involved. She particularly enjoyed her family history indexing project for the[caption id="attachment_10660" align="alignright" width="200"] Madison Hocker[/caption]“Good Works” value, during which she indexed over 10,000 names in 10 hours. Then she mentioned that logging in a thousand names per hour wasn’t the hardest part; she said her hardest task in the program was that “some of the longest ones took three months to finish, and trying to get it all finished, setting the goals, and finding a way to work on it regularly…”  The indexing project, however, was one of her favorites.Cassidy Crosby  Cowley 1st Ward“When I decided that I really wanted to accomplish this,” said Cassidy, “because, you know, I had thought about it before; but once I really planned it out and got started I was able to finish it within six months.”  She said that she’s proud of this accomplishment.“Even if you take the church aspect out of it, it’s still pretty cool that you’re able to have the willpower and to put forth that effort needed to finish something,” she said.[caption id="attachment_10699" align="alignright" width="200"] Cassidy Crosby[/caption]

By Wendy Roth