SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
Across the Northwest states of Washington, Oregon and northern Idaho, more than 14,000 volunteers participated in a broad scope of community service on Sept. 11, 2010, as part of the first Day of Service Northwest, reaching out to help others in a variety of ways during tough economic times when families and individuals are in need, unemployment rates are high, plus state and local agencies and schools have experienced budget cuts. More than 35,000 hours of service were gladly given as volunteers — individuals and families from children to seniors— contributed their energy, time and talents to improve their local communities.
Elder L. Whitney Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints invited Church members and their friends in the North America Northwest Area to participate in this first Day of Service NW. Originally organized to join the National Day of Service and Remembrance, the Day of Service NW will continue as an annual event in the Northwest.
Participants linked arms with faith partners, school districts, community agencies and neighborhood organizations. These projects included large-scale food drives, blood drives, wetlands restorations, a new park creation, extensive parks and trails work, school clean ups, cemetery clean ups, sprucing up elderly housing and community centers, appreciation acknowledgement of police, fire and medical service personnel, sewing projects and letter-writing campaigns for overseas USA military personnel.
Elder Phil K. Bussey, Area Seventy remarked, "It has been absolutely gratifying to see our members reach out in such abundance and diversity through service in their communities. Through their service, we have developed new friendships and partnerships, but most important, each member has directly demonstrated love for their neighbors through these community service projects. After seeing the results of all the participation this year, it will be exciting to watch the Day of Service grow and expand in years to come."
"From cleaning parks, planting trees and repairing homes, to feeding the homeless and helping the Red Cross, it is a wonderful thing to be involved in serving our communities and each other. What makes this year's Day of Service more exceptional is that in many cases we are partnered with other religious or community organizations," stated Elder R. Bruce Merrell, Area Seventy.
Community partners included Presbyterian, Catholic, Muslim, Baptist, Lutheran and Methodist faith groups; the American Red Cross; Rotary International, YMCA; city and town government organizations; state, county and city parks and recreation departments; neighborhood organizations, a national cemetery, Catholic Community Services; local school districts; Project Linus blankets; Hopelink, Northwest Harvest, Emergency Feeding Program and many other community food banks.
After watching two large container trucks loaded with food from floor to ceiling from the Bellevue Washington South Stake, Dan Conlin, co-chairman of the event exclaimed, "The Emergency Feeding Program people and Northwest Harvest staff were ecstatic. They were blown away by the amount of food we collected for them in one day. The Emergency Feeding director estimated they have at least a two-month supply of food for the people they serve."
Barbara Erickson Cooke, Lacey Washington Stake director of public affairs, shared her stake's planning process and the results. "The Lacey Stake decided on two projects, one in each major population area. We are thrilled with the response, since many wards just finished major service projects around Pioneer Day in July. For our Day of Service Northwest, in the City of Lacey, over a 150 volunteers removed invasive ivy from the 42-acre Lake Lois Habitat Reserve and cleared litter on the trail as part of an ongoing effort of the Lacey Parks and Recreation Department and Lacey Rotary.
"In Yelm, we organized the cleanup of the 14-mile Yelm-Tenino Trail with the approval of the Thurston County Parks Department. Approximately 185 volunteers came to help. We invited community members and local churches to join us. Yelm Mayor Ron Harding was one of the participants."
"The Day of Service Northwest has helped us to reach out to our community like never before," said Kristen Jenson, Bothell Washington Stake director of public affairs. "This year we did a food drive for Hopelink – a local non-profit agency serving those in need — but we have identified a long list of projects that we want to tackle in the upcoming years. Going forward, we know this annual Day of Service Northwest will forge bonds between our members and our neighbors as we work to serve together."
Many community leaders expressed their heartfelt appreciation. After seeing the people in his community gather to serve in 17 projects, City of Renton Chief Administrative Officer Jay Covington stated, "We here in the Renton community are thrilled with the response from the LDS Church and other community and service organizations and individuals for this National Day of Service. When President Bruce Taggart of the Renton LDS Stake met with the mayor and me to offer the services of 800 volunteers, we were both overwhelmed and overjoyed.
"In these difficult economic times, to have that offer of assistance is unprecedented, and so appreciated. Working with other government agencies, Catholic Community Services and the United Way, folks teamed up with other volunteers to work on projects such as assembling hygiene kits, trail and park maintenance, cleaning and planting natural areas, assisting home-bound and disabled neighbors and staffing our annual recycling event. This kind of joint effort puts a shine on our community that is more than visual. When people serve others like this, we are all better for it."
The City of Renton and other sponsors hosted a community picnic for all volunteers after the service was completed.
Some Day of Service Northwest projects were completed prior to Sept. 11, 2010, with several more projects to be completed in the next few weeks.
Kim Nelson, area co-chairman of the Day of Service Northwest along with his wife, Lois, said at the end of the day, "The creativity of the service provided was amazing. It reminds us that every talent and every person is valuable. We had haircuts and school pictures, painting and gutter cleaning, quilts and construction. The opportunities are as endless as our imaginations and that is a wonderful reminder of what we can do together with our friends and neighbors in our communities."
