Days of caring and service in three U.S. states blessed people in need as hundreds of volunteers performed various service projects found on JustServe — an online platform where organizations list their needs and people can find opportunities around them.
Below are examples from earlier this year in Texas, Utah and Oregon that have continued to bless lives as the organizations and volunteers involved strengthened their connection to JustServe and continue to find ways to serve.
Day of Caring in Victoria, Texas
The year 2024 marked the 200th anniversary of the city of Victoria, Texas. As part of the city celebration, there was a Victoria Bicentennial Day of Caring on April 13.
The city of Victoria used JustServe as the communication tool to sign up volunteers for the different service opportunities, which included painting, packing food boxes, sorting clothes, trash cleanup, landscaping, moving furniture, community outreach, pressure washing and more.
Since that day, the organizations that registered for the event have showed a continued interest in JustServe.
Raquel Hairell, the Bay City Texas Stake JustServe specialist, said the day of caring was “an extraordinary collaboration between our city, area nonprofit organizations and the JustServe platform.”
Hairell and the stake communication director set up a volunteer center on JustServe.org that encompassed all the nonprofit organizations’ volunteer opportunities and created a QR code for the city to advertise. This drove all the volunteer traffic through one easy spot to find and register.
In the end, they had 26 volunteer projects through 16 organizations and had 539 volunteers register for these projects through the JustServe website — but many more volunteers showed up as well. The volunteers included members of the Bay City stake, missionaries and residents of Victoria and nearby cities.
“We were overjoyed with the amazing response from the community and the JustServe platform got rave reviews,” Hairell said.
Josette Padilla-Eager, the JustServe specialist for the Church’s coordinating council in the south central area of Texas, said after the service projects, a big celebration was held at the city center including the descendants of the city’s founders in attendance.
“There was also a JustServe tent in the city center where Church communication leaders interacted with several people in the community, including a descendant of one of the city’s founders who enjoyed learning about the FamilySearch website,” Padilla-Eager said.
Padilla-Eager pointed out that a lot of work was put into the volunteer center to make the day of caring a success: “This created great opportunities that not only served those in need, but resulted in some organizations using JustServe for the first time and considering to continue to partner with JustServe for future projects.”
Hairell said the relationships made between the JustServe specialist, stake leaders, city official and organizations “have been profound and remain ongoing.”
Relief Society ‘Walk With Me’ activity in St. George, Utah
More than 100 women in the St George Utah Bloomington Hills Stake gathered on Saturday, April 20, for a day of service with the theme “Walk With Me.” They provided a combined hundreds of hours of service to benefit nonprofit organizations serving both their community and international needs.
Tami Salmon, a JustServe specialist, said, “Our stake Relief Society president’s goal was to help the sisters see that serving can be doing big or little things, but they all assist Christ in His work. We also wanted them to become more familiar with JustServe.”
Projects included:
- Cutting newspaper for papier-mâché projects for Memory Matters.
- Decorating 50 baby onesies and sewing 100 receiving blankets for newborns in Honduras in conjunction with Swaddle Love.
- Painting inspirational rocks for the women at the Dove Center.
- Preparing 69 sensory bottle supplies in baggies for Root for Kids.
- Cutting out pictures from stacks of magazines and organizing them into categories to be used by Root for Kids art projects.
- Hand-stitching pocket hearts for the Children’s Justice Center.
- Making 130 handmade cards and writing inspirational messages for seniors in care centers.
- Cutting out 75 children’s memory matching cards for the United Way and Help Me Grow Utah.
Since the activity was posted on JustServe.org, a young family showed up and spent more than an hour and a half at the various stations because they had been looking for somewhere to serve that morning. And another woman who lives outside of the stake boundaries saw the posting and brought a large bag of material to assist in the activities.
Salmon said the women enjoyed being able to visit with each other while working on the service projects. Some stayed for a half an hour while others stayed for the entire time. “We heard many comments that this activity should become an annual event because it was casual but very productive,” she said.
At the activity, posters and signs showed more about each organization that was being helped and how families could continue to help those organizations on their own. A JustServe station allowed the women to see how the JustServe app works and browse through projects on the site. They could also write service ideas on the board so others looking for ideas could see them.
“One sister said she had made hundreds of children’s hats and she wanted to donate them, so we found an organization that was thrilled to receive them,” Salmon said.
Women’s day of service in Oregon City, Oregon
On a rainy Saturday, May 4, the Oregon City Stake held a “Neighbor to Neighbor Women’s Day of Service” through the help of JustServe.
Hundreds of hours were spent planning for and volunteering at the event. One hundred eighty women and 15 young women gathered inside a local school that day for a variety of service projects, including sewing, crafts, coloring and assembling kits.
They made and donated:
- 72 skirts to the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization.
- 240 Christmas cards for the senior center and Meals on Wheels.
- 350 baby bonding hearts for local hospitals.
- 36 sets of alphabet cards for Catholic Charities.
- 178 first aid kits for local senior centers, shelters and schools.
- 300 sandwiches for a local homeless shelter.
- 85 paracord bracelets and 211 feminine hygiene kits for local school districts and Love One, a non-profit organization committed to serving Clackamas County neighbors in need.
Large JustServe banners and other information helped volunteers know how to continue to find local or remote service opportunities.
