The Bishop's Office: South Jordan Service Girls

Last Fall Kate told me she wanted to start a club....a girls only club. She thought it would be cool to get some of her friends together and do service. She chose the name South Jordan Service Girls and we set to work on a logo. We needed a logo because Kate insisted that a real club must have t-shirts.

When I asked her what she would like to plan for her first service project she offered a range of possibilities - walk someone's dog, shovel snow, rake leaves. I gently nudged her toward the idea of collecting winter clothes for her school's clothing drive.

We created invitations and she rode around the neighborhood to deliver them to her friends.

Then she delivered notes to all our neighbors to let them know the Service Girls would be coming by the next day to gather winter clothing.

We prepared a newsletter for the first meeting and I told Kate she needed to come up with a logo. I suggested "Service is Sweet." She said, "How about 'Service with a Smile' - no everybody uses that. How about 'Sweet Service with a Smile'?"

Her first meeting was a big hit and the girls enjoyed making their shirts and running up and down the street gathering clothes. They collected three large boxes of items.

November

In December the Service Girls met to make Christmas Cards. They talked about how Christmastime can be lonely for some people and they each made a card to deliver to someone. (As I was driving down the street later that afternoon I saw one of the girls delivering her card to her neighbor. Too cute!)

December

In January they met to sew medical dolls for Primary Children's Medical Center. Primary's uses these dolls to help with patient teaching and surgery prep. I had the dolls ready to be turned and stuffed and each girl used a pattern to cut out and sew a gown. Some of the girls were skilled enough to use my sewing machine all by themselves.