PROVO, Utah — Seven rooms across Brigham Young University’s campus were filled with thousands of smiles, working hands and the sound of happy conversations as attendees of the 2025 BYU Women’s Conference chose to participate in service opportunities.
The conference’s Learning Service Rooms and Evening of Service provided seven specific opportunities for women attending to “walk with [Christ]” (Moses 6:34), help others in need and minister to their fellow sisters.
Connie Moessing from Mapleton, Utah, and her sister, Helen Kealy from Huntington Beach, California, were glad they could give some of their time in ways that matter.
“Whatever they need us to do here I want to participate in that and support it,” said Moessing.
Lorrain Huggans, who served as the Evening of Service project leader this year, has worked in various service committee roles in past years. Familiar with the process of selecting appropriate projects, she said the service projects are prayerfully considered and chosen based on what is needed.
“We have these hands. We want to know what we can do that would actually make a difference,” Huggans said, emphasizing, “It is all about ministering.”
Learning Service Rooms
This year, six service projects in Learning Service Rooms featured stay-and-make projects. While attendees worked on projects, an address being given concurrently in another room was piped in through a live audio feed. This allowed participants to learn and serve at the same time.
Karin Brown, a service subcommittee member, said participating in service at the conference is one of the things women like to do — listening, learning and keeping their hands busy doing good.
Projects completed in the Learning Service Rooms included fleece blankets, mastectomy pillows, teddy bears, happy pillows, bookmarks and worry buddies. These projects will benefit local youth and adults through the following agencies: Camp BeYou, Camp Hobe, Early Learning Essentials, Granite Education Foundation, Hearts Knit Together, Intermountain Medical Center, Odyssey House, VA SLC Healthcare System and Valley Behavioral Health.
Evening of Service
More than 16,000 hygiene kits were made by conference attendees and boxed up by volunteers at this year’s Evening of Service, which is a walk-through service opportunity. Two paths offered the option to make four or eight hygiene kits as women walked along tables adding items to a bag, tying it, then repeating the process.
Women streamed into this sectioned-off area in the Smith Fieldhouse to have a chance to give a little to those in need throughout the world.
“It is a different type of feasting with the sisters,” said Amber Morrill from Perry, Utah, who expressed gratitude for the opportunity to serve. “Instead of just being fed myself, I can give back.”
Morrill, her neighbor Courtney Healy and a new conference friend, Brittany Hubble from Midvale, Utah, said the service opportunities also offer a needed opportunity to visit with new people.
For three sisters and a daughter-in-law, the Evening of Service has become an important part of their annual BYU Women’s Conference “reunion.” Cara Gordon from North Ogden, Utah; Christie Hull from Casper, Wyoming; Amee Hull from Charlotte, North Carolina; and Cami Gordon from Nibley, Utah, have made it what one called “a joyful tradition,” expressing that joy by repeatedly returning to the beginning to complete as many kits as they could.
Miracles and blessings
Unlike the Learning Service Rooms, which were available throughout much of each day, the Evening of Service was during a three-hour block of time. In that time, a steady stream of participants completed about 13,000 kits.
However, according to Carolyn Myers, a service subcommittee member, three groups of women made of family members and new friends, stayed to see what they could accomplish during the time others were at the evening concert.
“They were able to complete another 3,000 kits,” said Myers, calling it one of the miracles she has seen at the conference. The 16,000 assembled hygiene kits were given to Tabitha’s Way to help people in the local community. Surplus products were shipped to Lifting Hands International to benefit refugees and others in need worldwide.
“Heavenly Father put the right people in the right places to accomplish His purpose,” said Myers.
Reflecting on the experience, Huggans said women come to Women’s Conference “to fill their cups” by learning and serving.
“It’s incredible,” she said. “When you offer service, it changes you.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article noted that the hygiene kits from the Evening of Service would be donated to Helping Hands International and Tabitha’s Way. They are being donated to Tabitha’s Way and surplus products shipped to Lifting Hands International.
