Past Articles

Called to Stardom Sleepover

Tonya Pember

Walk the red carpet and meet the paparazzi at the Oklahoma Science Museum.  Attend the Called to Stardom awards on . . .   So began the invitation to the Oklahoma District Section 9 sleepover. 

The 195 girls and 54 sponsors from 14 churches arrived in "formal" (dress-up) attire, walked the red carpet into the auditorium amid museum employees snapping pictures and conducting interviews. 

Called to Stardom awards were given to 12 women (sponsors with prepared acceptance speeches) such as Anna, Abigail, Hannah, Mary and Martha. The final award, Lead Actress in the Life of Christ, was presented to Mary. InnerCity AG pastor, Deborah Burke, "accepted" the award pointing the girls to her "son" Jesus. Twenty girls raised their hands for salvation.

The girls changed into lounge wear and took over the museum.  In addition to the museum's hands-on exhibits, the girls made kaleidoscopes, masks, and pinhole planetariums. They participated in a castle siege, a boat battle, and a paper airplane challenge. There was also a planetarium production of The Night Sky.    

At midnight, the evening ended with a "mad scientist" who delighted the crowd with explosions! The museum staff coordinated and provided materials for all activities.

Breakfast was served by the museum and we concluded with door prizes and prayer. The museum handled the clean up. 

Tonya Pember and Connie Boggs, GM reps for Section 9 of the Oklahoma District planned and conducted the event. The "awards show" was their production. The event was expensive ($33 per girl and $20 per sponsor), but the coordinators voted for the venue. Attendees agreed it was worth the expense and easy on us

Called to Stardom Sleepover

Fran DeLeon

Sleepover 2009 was held on September 19, and included Daisies through Girls Only clubs. It was a wonderful and blessed event! Our “Sleepover” is more like a “Girls Night Out” event, since it’s held from 6-11 p.m. instead of overnight. A total of 43 attended (30 girls and 13 sponsors/helpers)

The “Called to Stardom theme was amazing, and we made it our very own as we reinforced the theme with the various activities suggested in the planning guide. Our girls (from the very youngest to the oldest!) especially enjoyed participating in our talent show, entitled “Galaxy Theater.” They also enjoyed the Star Scavenger Hunt, which was held in the sanctuary with fluorescent stars.

The church nursery was turned into a lovely dressing room by one of our sponsors and we named it “Queen Esther’s Closet.” Some of our mothers loaned us beautiful dresses, shoes, and other accessories. Our girls were outfitted with these, and then modeled them at our “Galaxy Theatre.” (We used a large puppet state for the center part of the theatre, and then draped black sheets for the additional backdrop. The “theatre” was then decorated with clear Christmas lights, including the red runway)! Our girls were beautiful and enjoyed all of the attention and love given to them!

A sure favorite was our “Galaxy Concession Stand,” where our girls exchanged their 25 cent tickets for bags of “homemade” fresh popcorn, M&Ms, pop, and pickles…mostly consumed as they enjoyed the talent show.

For their craft time, the girls decorated star sugar cookies with icing and sprinkles (they loved this).

The registration fee of $3 (offered online or on site) included their pizza meal and boxed drink. They not only loved the pizza, but also the free root beer floats that we surprised them! Tickets for the concession stand were also sold on site for the 25 cents each.

Sleepover 2009 was a huge success. The girls’ hearts were touched and challenged with the “Project India” emphasis for missions. Several weeks before the Sleepover each of the clubs had an opportunity to design and work on their offering containers. A total of $156.43 was given for “Project India.”

Our Sleepover was wonderful and our girls thoroughly enjoyed all the activities planned for them, but nothing compares to God’s sweet presence as we prayed together and shared His love and thoughts for each of them!