Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are rolling up their sleeves, finding their paintbrushes and sharpening their shovels as they prepare to provide local community service to areas throughout New Zealand on 23 February 2013.
“’Mormon Helping Hands Day’ enables members and friends of the Church to give of their time and talents to make their communities better places in which to live,” according to John McLean, one of the organizers of a community project on Auckland’s North Shore.
“It also helps us all, including our young people, to develop great pride in our community.”
Latter-day Saint leader on Auckland’s North Shore, Michael Higgins, announced this week that Mormon volunteers would be painting buildings belonging to another faith group this year.
- 'Mormon Helping Hands' Volunteers in Hamilton New Zealand.
- Helping Hands Auckland
- Helping Hands program
- Wellington Mormons Donate Groceries to Help Needy Families
- Mormon filmmaker chronicles Mormon Helping Hands efforts after Hurricane Sandy
| Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 1 / 2 |
In Wellington, Mayor Celia Wade-Brown will welcome an expected 200 volunteers who will be blazing trails, weeding, mulching and working on restoring the environment around Owhiro Stream.
Martin Payne, leader of the community group, ‘Friends of Owhiro Stream,’ says he is pleased to welcome the Latter-day Saint volunteers. “I enjoy seeing young children working alongside their parents — it gives us a real sense of community.”
Volunteers in Porirua will cut scrub, remove rubbish and garden at Ngatitoa and Windley schools.
Mormon Helping Hands volunteers from Upper Hutt will be working at Papawai Marae in Greytown, Wairarapa. The marae has historical significance to Latter-day Saints because the first permanent branch of the Church among Maori was established there in August 1883.
There are over 200 Mormon congregations throughout New Zealand. Most congregations will be involved, in some way, in over 20 different community improvement initiatives on 23 February. In addition, some congregations will organize other service projects at other times during the year based on local needs.
Even though Latter-day Saints have placed strong emphasis on improving their neighbourhoods, towns and cities since the Church was organized in 1830, ‘Mormon Helping Hands’ has only been an organized, worldwide, community service approach since 2000.
Since that time more than 1.5 million hours of voluntary service have been given throughout the world.
Volunteers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also assist, where possible, when there are major disasters in places as diverse as Japan, Haiti and Samoa.
In many cases, community and humanitarian service is provided by Latter-day Saints alongside representatives of other churches, charities and government agencies.
Last year New Zealand songwriter and performer Dionne Shaw wrote a song about Mormon Helping Hands volunteerism. Read more and watch a music video featuring the song here.