Tips for the Perfect Girls Camp Tshirt

I was blessed to serve as the Stake Girls Camp Director in Southern Utah for the past two years. I was shocked beyond shocked to be called to serve in that position...having never been to Girls Camp from start to finish ever in my life! I was baptized at the age of {almost} 18 and had never been to Girls Camp for more than a day here or there to help out. Yikes! But I am here to testify that with Heavenly Father you can do ANYTHING!! The answers that were given to my every prayer were clear, concise, and nothing short of miracle after miracle.

You can read a quick review of Girls Camp 2012 here and a quick Sneak Peek of Girls Camp 2013 here.
I still need to blog about both years, but that will come soon as well!

Here are the things I learned / did to achieve the perfect Girls Camp Tshirt!

1. In order to have the perfect shirt, you need the Camp Theme / Scripture / Quote that is perfect for your Ward or Stake. I know, it's tempting to just copy the idea someone else has done. Believe me, I was so smitten by this Stakes Girls Camp! I just wanted to use their exact theme, tshirt, colors, etc... but I knew that I needed to pray about the needs of the Stake I was serving in. I promise that as you consider the needs of your Stake/Ward, you will be lead to the exact theme / quote {I love using a quote!} / scripture that you should focus on for your camp! {pictures coming below!!} {Yes we did have a scripture both years, we didn't put it on the t-shirt but we focused on it in devotionals, etc at camp}

2. Right up there with praying about the theme for your Girls Camp is having someone who can pull the ideas out of your head and put them magically and amazingly into a graphic design. Enter my amazing, talented, oldest daughter Alexa Zurcher. After much prayer, thought, and consideration, I would tell her the colors I wanted to go with that year, the theme, & quote. She is talented beyond belief!!! Here is what she came up with for the 2012 and for 2013 t-shirt designs.

 Erin, my sweet daughter, modeling the 2012 tshirt

{ha, look at all of the boxes of t-shirts that flooded my living room! In 2012 we decided to take every wards t-shirt order and individually roll each tshirt, tie with a tulle bow and their own name tag. That way, every girl got the shirt size that she ordered. In 2013, we just gave the box of t-shirts to each ward and they got to present them to their girls how they wanted to {much easier for us!}}

Here are some of our amazing Stake Girls Camp Leaders (I'm the one taking the picture!)

Our theme for 2013 was "Wherever you are Stand Tall", with "Advice from a Tree" as our "quote". Our colors were dark blue, light blue, orange, and white. I had reasons for each of the colors:

White - to remind them of the St George Temple, to Stand Tall always and to attend the Temple

Orange - to remind them of the beauty of the red rocks that we stand near daily in Southern Utah 

{google it, we live in a gorgeous area!}

Light Blue - to remind them of the blue sky we stand under almost daily!

It was neat that even the colors went with our theme.

And the dark blue t-shirts because that's what looked best with our paint colors! {and maybe because I love blue!} :) We taught a short devotional about each piece of "advice" every morning and evening. More camp details coming soon. I've got to stick to t-shirts here!!! 

We all loved our t-shirts!

3. And last, but by far, not least....the amazing things I learned about doing the shirts. First, the girls all loved, loved, loved the shirts both years. We had another Stake up using the camp near us and all of their YW there begged for a shirt both years {sorry we only ordered enough for our Stake!} Here's what they LOVED:

** They loved that the shirts didn't say "Girls Camp 2013  Santa Clara Heights Stake  Little Thunder Camp" I truly felt like we didn't need to put any of that on there! If they received a t-shirt it was because they came to girls camp, and they would remember where it was they went to and what Stake they were a part of. It was the best decision! All of the girls commented on how much they loved this!! {now, don't worry that this was our choice! If you feel otherwise, please print your shirts how you feel you should for your Stake / Ward!}

**When I was first called to be the Stake Girls Camp Director, our Stake had just recently been split into two. The Stake Presidency encouraged me to build unity in our Stake and build traditions that could last a long time for our Stake. The one thing that came to my mind {again, after much prayer} was to have all of the t-shirts be the exact same. Meaning, everyone at camp received the same color / design / etc... I wanted our camp to feel like "EFY" {Especially For Youth camps...google it if needed!} where everyone had the exacty same tshirt {boys and girls alike at EFY}. Some Wards/Stakes choose to have each ward a different color, but I felt like that would cause a division and I wanted complete unity at camp. So the solution = create one tshirt for everyone! Again, I cannot tell you the amazing comments that we received about the unity and amazingness of the tshirts!

**Lastly, I know, I know....you are thinking how incredibly lucky I was to have such a talented daughter to design and create our t-shirts. And I competely agree! But then again, I told her that she still owes me for birthing her :) She LOVED being a part of Girls Camp and I LOVED her help like no other! If I did not have her, it would be worth it for me as the Camp Director to use some of my budget to hire someone to help put my thoughts and ideas into an amazing desing. Soooo, I told Alexa that this is what she should do. She {as a stay at home young mom ...we all remember those days!} should offer to help design t-shirts for a price. She could earn some extra money and people could get the amazing designs she comes up with! Just an idea!

So, that's the in's and out's of the Perfect Girls Camp T-shirts {for us anyway!}. You may receive answers and thoughts about what you need to do for your Ward / Stake. I loved, loved, loved serving as Girls Camp Director for the past two years! It was truly the hardest, yet most rewarding calling I have ever held. There was a great feeling of relief when I was released last week! {but no worries, I'm pretty sure I'm going to Girls Camp next year....thankfully not in charge, just with another calling}

HAPPY GIRLS CAMP T-SHIRT MAKING!!!
Ps...Our shirts cost about $6 each to have printed. Every ward placed their own order to us and paid for their own shirts. The Stake paid for all of the Stake Leaders t-shirts and placed the final {entire} order. Don't forget to order about 10 extra t-shirts of varying sizes {I found mainly mediums}. You will end up using them! We also encouraged every ward to order one extra tshirt as well {in case someone moved in before camp!}