Wednesday, September 26th. William Shakespeare's Thought For The Day:

Purity Balls can vary in many particulars, but fathers who attend typically pledge before God to protect their young daughters' purity in mind, body and soul. Daughters are expected to remain virgins, abstaining from pre-marital sexual intercourse.
Fathers must sign the "Covenant of Purity and Protection," witnessed by their daughters, and openly commit to the pledge, a typical example of which might be:
I, (daughter’s name)'s father, choose before God to cover my daughter as her authority and protection in the area of purity. I will be pure in my own life as a man, husband and father. I will be a man of integrity and accountability as I lead, guide and pray over my daughter and as the high priest in my home. This covering will be used by God to influence generations to come.

Purity Balls have also drawn criticism from Christians; in the Chicago Sun Times, Betsy Hart writes:

I'm an evangelical Christian who firmly believes that sex should be reserved for marriage. But I just can't imagine going about it this way with any of my four kids, son or daughters ... I can't help but wonder if a single-minded focus on virginity is an ironic, and unintended way, of sexualizing youth in a different way ... There's a reason that Christ warned, in condemning the hypocrisy of the (outwardly righteous) Pharisees, that sin is not what goes into a person, it's what comes out of the heart.<2>