Helping Hands California

On Saturday, April 30 we participated in a special service project event - Mormon Helping Hands California. Thousands of LDS church members all over California donned bright yellow vests and went out to serve where ever needed in their communities. More info here.

Lots of members of our stake, young and old gathered Saturday morning to get their vest and assignments for the day. We were ready to work!

We had quite a large group from our ward, so they divided us into two groups and sent us to two different Boys and Girls clubs.

Our group was assigned the La Quinta B&G club, but unfortunately, when we got there, there was nobody there to let is in and give us instructions. We waited a while as we tried to reach someone for the club who could help us. They must have forgotten we were coming. Finally we decided to give up and go join the rest of our group at the Indio B&G Club.

But by the time we got there they pretty much had things under control and there was not a lot left for us to do.

Dirty closet? Clean it up!

These gals, Mary and Madi, cleaned out a storage closet. Nice work ladies!

Lots of folks working hard.

Then they gave everyone free bicycle helmets! Nice. Although, I don't think some of us put in enough work to deserve them (not because we were not willing to work, but because there were just too many workers!)

When were were finished at the B&G Club, it was only 10:30am, and I had a car full of able-bodied and willing young men, and I was not about to let that valuable resource go to waste, so I texted my sister to see where her group ended up and if they needed more helpers.

It turned out that their group was just down the street at Martha's Kitchen and Village, and homeless shelter, picking up trash. So we joined them and put these boys back to work again.

(BTW, that my my first visit to Martha's and I was very impressed! We spoke with the manager about what they do there. What a wonderful, beautiful, clean and happy place that is. They do a lot of good for a lot of people, and we were happy to help them this time.)

A parade of collected trash!

In the end, we had been to three different places in our community to help in whichever way we could. We did not do as much work as we could have, but we were were willing and worked hard where we could and in the end, that is what matters, right?

With our hands, and the hands of all the thousands of members of our church who volunteered for Mormon Helping Hands, I sure we made a big impact in California that day!

Now lets give ourselves a hand!