Each year, we join with people across the nation in a day of service to promote love and kindness and remember those who sacrifice so much to keep us safe. This is how wards in the Far West Missouri Stake showed up to serve their communities.
Kearney Ward
The Kearney Ward partnered with the Kearney Food Pantry and the Kearney School District to provide food to go in backpacks for kids to take home and eat when they are not at school. It was advertised at Price Chopper and through the school district. Food was brought to the Stake Center on Wednesday, September 9th, and sorted by food item. Primary children colored notes of encouragement; water bottles had messages taped onto them by the youth to also offer encouragement. Some of the donations came through Amazon, and others were dropped off. Over 1100 pounds of food was donated and delivered.
Crooked River Ward
(Coming)
Grindstone Creek Ward
Dream Catchers of Cameron is an equine-based therapy program for children and adults with disabilities. Recently, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had the opportunity to provide service for the Dream Catchers organization on the National Day of Service.
Members of the Grindstone Creek congregation got to work early on Saturday, September 12, to help with needed projects at Dream Catchers. Approximately 40 members of the congregation showed up to work in various areas. They cleaned up and installed shelving in the break room, organized all the boots kept on hand for riders, and weed-eated fence lines and around the buildings. Most of the sensory garden had grown up in weeds, and they cleaned that area completely. Additionally, they put metal on the end of a building that hadn’t been finished, fixed a large sliding door at the end of the arena barn that had blown off, and built a fence to create a new paddock area for the horses. The group also cleaned and oiled saddles, cleaned the bathrooms and break room, cleaned out a storage area, and organized it, as well as doing other outside clean-up. The Grindstone Creek Ward members were grateful for the opportunity to help such a worthwhile organization. There was talk of making this service a tradition.
The Dream Catchers board members were so impressed with how hard everyone (all ages, retired folks, mid-aged, youth, and small kids) worked, how cheerful and happy they were to be there doing service, how nice and friendly everyone was, how they would finish something and ask what they could do next, and how much they accomplished in 4 hours. This service was a great example of transforming tragedy into something good for the community.
Whitmer Ward
Members showed up for 3 hours to clean, mow, and tidy up the Richmond cemetery around the Whitmer graves.