Katie earned her Stars & Stripes Award through American Heritage Girls. Her project was updating our church’s playground. It was a big project in addition to all if the other requirements.
Today we were able to celebrate her award and all of her accomplishments along the way. Her youth minister, troop unit leader, and the children’s minister (since she served the children’s program through this project and over the past several years), and mentor all spoke about her growth. When the open opportunity to speak about her came, so many people came forward—adults who have seen her love their girls, her peers who spoke of how she is a wonderful friend, and younger girls who look up to her and appreciate that she sees them. I didn’t take a single picture during the ceremony, wanting to soak it all up.
Then we had our party. In the midst of the process of getting her project approved, there were gaps of time in which we waited awhile, and as mom, I was to step back and let the project be hers anyway, so I’d been planning the party in fits and spurts for months.