Rainbow Girls – by Taylor Pitman, age 14

We are Heart of the Valley Assembly of the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls! We are a non-profit service organization with the Masons dedicated to teaching girls 11-20 about responsibility, service, respect, and how to succeed in life. In our assembly, we do regular service projects and fundraisers, and we always strive to do the best we can. Some of our recent service projects have been to help and support wildlife where our assembly is going to go to the preserve and help in any way we can. We also raise money and support events such as the Relay for Life and the Light the Night Walk for Leukemia patients and survivors. We do monthly dinners at the Clovis Masonic Lodge to raise money to support our assembly. The Clovis Masonic Lodge is also where our assembly holds our regular meetings on the second and fourth Wednesdays of every month. At our meetings, we do ritual, which is memorized work, and we go over the business in the assembly. At our meetings is where we plan all of our service projects and fundraisers. On the first Monday of every month, the top officers in the assembly, called the Line, go to another meeting, usually at the Mother Advisors house. We go over different events in the assembly that require extra attention. On top of all of this, every year, our assembly attends Grand Assembly. This year it was held on April 4-7 at the Selland Arena. Grand Assembly is where every assembly in California, including visiting officers from other states, gather together. Like at our meetings, Grand Assembly also has officers called Grand Officers. They hold the same offices of our assembly, including representatives to other states, but they are of a much higher degree. And like our Worthy Advisor, the Grand Worthy Advisor is the top girl in California Rainbow. Sadly, yet exciting, at Grand Assembly every year, new Grand Officers are chosen from assemblies all over California. This event is called Revelations. This year, Visalia Assembly, who are also in our district, had the great privilege of having one of their girls, Jolene Martin, elected as Grand Immortality, and Representative to Illinois & Wisconsin. Also, the new Grand Worthy Advisor in California is Samantha Forcum. Another part of Grand Assembly, of course, is competitions! In Ritual competition, where girls recite memorized work to earn awards, Taylor Pittman won second place in her age category. Last year, she also won First in her age category. Jenna Thomason who also competed, did not place but did an outstanding job as always! Last year, she placed second behind Taylor Pittman, and the previous year placed first in her age group! In the Arts and Crafts competition, our assembly had multiple awards. Jenna Thomason placed first for her beautiful scrapbook. And in the Poetry competition, Adream Johnson won first place in her age group, also winning sweepstakes for her amazing poem!! Every year at Grand Assembly, the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls donates money to a state wide service project. Last year the service project was Family Soup. An organization dedicated to special needs children. California donated almost $79,000  to Family Soup over all! We hope next year’s Grand Assembly is just as good! Rainbow Girls are always looking for more service to perform and people to help, so if you have any ideas and would like to know more about the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls, visit out website at www.gorainbow.org!