November Leader helping Leader:
Jennifer Seuss, New Milford, Connecticut, Little Flowers/Little Women Leader for 18 years
Have you ever wanted to ask an experienced Little Flowers Leader what works and what doesn’t? We hope to bring you some words of wisdom from our experienced leaders to help you along your Little Flowers way!
When did you first become interested in Little Flowers? Can you tell us a little about how you found out about Little Flowers and what led you to help form a group?
I first became interested in Little Flowers when I came across some Little Flowers materials in a church building hallway. My oldest daughter wasn’t old enough yet, but I guess I inquired about it to find out what the program was, and I and made a mental note of it for later. I loved the idea of learning the virtues and I love the saints! I loved the sashes and badges! When my daughter was in Kindergarten, I started a Little Flowers group. This is now my 18th consecutive year running Little Flowers with my 4th daughter!
What does a typical meeting look like in your group?
I have the largest-ever group this year. We have 47 girls! We start the meeting off all together with the prayer to St. Therese, followed by a litany in which we add the new Little Flowers saint each month. Then, we say or sing the memory verse together. Next, each girl who has remembered to wear her sash gets a red Swedish fish candy (no one remembers how this tradition got started, but we’ve been doing it for a long time!). After that, we divide into two separate age groups, and a mom will lead a virtue talk for each group, followed by a craft or activity. We close by gathering again as a large group and sing the song “Mary, Our Mother”.
What kinds of fruits from Little Flowers have you seen over the years?
One of the important lessons I’ve learned that I’ve tried to share through Little Flowers is how our own holiness can spread the light of Christ in the world. Growing the virtues in our souls develops that holiness and the examples of the saints shine for us. It’s been inspiring to me how some of the girls, and even families, have taken Little Flowers a step further and worked together to create movies about some of the Little Flowers saints. (This became an activity of our Little Women group, and hence “Little Women Motion Picture Artists” was born.) We have done films about Saint Zita of Lucca and Saint Catherine Labouré that are amazing. These have a combined number of nearly half a million YouTube views! You can find them on my Terra Bona Family YouTube channel. This has definitely been a fruit of Little Flowers that has touched many people beyond!
What were some of the biggest obstacles you’ve had to overcome?
Sometimes it’s hard to get the level of participation you want from the moms to volunteer to help run the crafts and give virtue talks. I’ve found that one way to get things going is to run the virtue talk in the style of a “TV talk show”. I’m the talk show host, and I play it up. I have a panel of moms and girls seated up front, and I have at my disposal an “applause” sign that I can hold up at will. I have a list of interview questions that I ask the panel to get them talking about the virtue. Usually, this gets the moms to put themselves out and we end up with a lively and interesting discussion.
I’ve also had to overcome my own shyness to be able to get up and give a talk in front of a group. I’m better at it now, but I find that running the talk show at the beginning of the year gets new moms up in front of the group, and learning that they can do it too!
About how many girls do you think went through the program with you?
Ok, so I decided to count… 185 have participated!
Do you ever see or keep in touch with Little Flowers from years ago? How do you see that being involved Little Flowers has helped form them or grow in virtue and faith?
Yes, Little Flowers has helped to build a community, and through that, I have stayed in touch with many. With Little Flowers as the springboard, I’ve also run extension groups for middle school and high school age girls, including Little Women, BLAZE and girls’ bible studies. Since I feel Little Flowers has helped me and my daughters to grow in virtue and faith, I hope it has been the same for other moms and daughters as well.
Do you have any particular story about your time involved in Little Flowers that you’d like to share?
I can think of a few memorable moments off-hand…
I love to be creative with my presentations. I was having a hard time thinking of how to teach the virtue of hope. I thought it would be easiest to first have the girls to tap into an experience of what it means to feel hopeless. I had two girls stand on either side of another girl, holding a paper towel over her head. I had a fourth girl stand on a chair with a pitcher of water, ready to pour it onto the “super ultra absorbent” paper towel I was peddling. I asked the girl underneath how much hope she had that she would be staying dry. We never actually poured the water, but it was a good talking point for contrasting this hopelessness with the kind of hope we can have in our “super ultra” God. There were a few other parts to the demonstration… It was a memorable lesson!
Another memorable time was last year, I decided it was time that I could have a sash, too. During our annual October sashing ceremony, the girls presented me with my sash. I added a badge for every virtue I’ve taught and I now wear it to every meeting!
As some of my friends have moved away, it’s been rewarding to see them creating their own Little Flowers groups and help them get started, too.
Do you have any words of wisdom to share with new Little Flowers leaders or those thinking about starting a Little Flowers program?
Run it as a mother-daughter club. I require moms to attend with their daughters, and run it in the evening when it’s easier for them to get out. I think this makes the at-home component of Little Flowers more fruitful, as there is the shared experience at the meetings. Also, you’ll get more moms to volunteer to help with the virtue talks and crafts. I have a SignUpGenius that makes it easy for moms to volunteer and it keeps us organized.
For my best Little Flowers Leader practical tip, I glue a page into the inside cover of the member guides that includes some guidelines for earning a badge (in my group, everyone completes activities 1 and 2; younger girls pick 2 additional and bigger girls pick 3 additional). It also has glued onto it a little envelope that is a “badge keeper” pouch. At the end of the meeting, I’m open for “badge business”. The girls bring me their member guides and I check for their mom’s signature. I then put a sticker on the checklist page (this shows I’ve given them their badge) and I put the new badge into the pouch.
It’s also fun to have additional activities during the year besides the monthly meetings. We do a Christmas Cheer musical program at a local home for the elderly, sometimes the Memorial Day parade, visits to the convent, raking leaves for those in need, a rosary night or movie. One of my favorites has been for the virtue of Docility, a docility potluck (tied to one of the checklist items) in which each family is assigned a country and saint from that country. They make a food item from that country’s cuisine and a poster about the saint. Then, everyone practices docility by trying new foods!
I haven’t had to do this in a while, but if you’re looking to grow your group, you could have your current members make handmade invitations to a “Come and See” — a regular meeting to which prospective members are invited, maybe towards the end of the year, so that maybe they will want to join in the next.
