Helping Hands

It was really wonderful knowing that all the LDS members in the state of California were coming together on the same day and helping out at this time in need. My assignment was to babysit the kids at the park so the adults could actually do the work on the park. My family members in Fremont also participated in their stake and worked really hard to get the parks put back together in their area. This is a portion of an article written May 10th about the Helping Hands project here in Sacramento.

Sacramento - More than 10,000 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and their friends descended on parks throughout the Sacramento region to perform necessary work from clean-up and general maintenance to painting, planting trees and even construction jobs.

Under the banner of Mormon Helping Hands, an international program of the Church that has provided manpower in distressed communities and organized relief efforts after natural disasters, the volunteers have chosen parks in their own communities to perform work in state, regional and city parks that have been hit hard by the recent downturn in the economy. The Sacramento effort is part of a statewide Mormon Helping Hands undertaking whose theme is “Preserving California’s Parks.”

“Members of the Church since the 1840s were instrumental in the establishment and building up of the state, including Sacramento and many other local cities and towns,” said Dennis Holland, Director of Public Affairs for the Sacramento Region. “We feel it is our duty to continue in following Jesus Christ’s example of service to others by helping to improve the communities in which we live, especially during these tough economic times for our local and state governments.”

To thank the Helping Hands volunteers, both the City and County of Sacramento have officially declared May 8, 2010, as Mormon Helping Hands Day.