Our Stake Makes the Front Page!

Our Bishop and Stake President stop working for a moment for a photo with the park rangers and San Luis Obispo Parks Commissioner.

Service Day Draws More Than 200 Volunteers

By Adobe Staff

"Nipomo Community Park got a spring cleaning and facelift last Saturday as more than 200 members of local wards and branches of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints descended with paint brushes, shovels and hammers.

Santa Maria Stake President Bill Ridgeway said he was pleased with the turn-out.

“I began to work, and within half an hour I saw another 100 volunteers show up to help.”

Uniformed in yellow vests, church members from Pismo Beach to Santa Maria pitched in to spruce up the park as part of the church’s annual Helping Hands Service Day.

Volunteers painted picnic tables and signs, trimmed trees, pulled weeds, raked up debris and repaired fencing.

This marks the second year in a row church members have volunteered to do maintenance at the park, which is heavily used for youth sports as well as summer recreation.

Currently, the park is being used by Nipomo Little League, which fields 305 players on 25 teams in a season that started March 13 and will end June 12.

Nipomo Little League then will host the 11-year-olds in the all-star season that starts June 26.

San Luis Obispo County Parks Commissioner Paul Teixeira was on hand Saturday to present the Mormon volunteers with a certificate of appreciation for the work performed in the park,

“When you see this many volunteers, saying thank you just doesn’t seem like enough,” Teixeira said.

County Parks Ranger Lee Thompson said the Mormons make up the largest group that volunteers to help take care of the park."

* The kids and I had a wonderful time helping at this annual community service project. Savanna worked for over 3 hours helping with childcare so parents with young children could come and help. Bradley took this project very seriously going around picking up trash and debris. Me, well, I supervised my kids and helped a bit with the childcare. Every time Bradley came by and saw me standing around he would yell at me and say things like, "Mom, you're part of this church! You should be working harder!" I informed him that he may want to consider saying things of that nature to pregnant women in general, and especially let him know that his future wife would not appreciate it! He still refers to this day as "Mormon Cleaning Hands Day"...pretty funny.

The Stake provided a beautiful Hawaiian lunch afterwards complete with Hawaiian music and hula dancers. It was a beautiful day in the park, and always great to serve our community! *

May 8, 2010