I'm the stake Relief Society president. This day was to be our Humanitarian Service Day, the stake Relief Society enrichment event for 2008. The major portion of our set-up was done the night before. We came early Saturday to get foods in the kitchen and set up the painting area outside under the pavilion. We were greeting and welcoming sisters by 9:30am. We had a great opening to set the tone for the day.
Then we began the work on 8 service projects: painted wooden blocks (130), stuffing little animals (100+), hygiene kits (80), taggy blankets (75), Halloween gift bags (??), tied blankets (12), books read to CD's (75) and letters to military personnel (??). We received clothes a lady could work or job interview in donated. There were enough of these to fill to the top 2 cars and the bed of one pick-up truck. We also collected a huge can of pop top tabs. All these items were for organizations within our stake boundaries. We finished at 3pm and had clean-up done by 4:20pm. It was a great day and we have only heard positive comments.
There were many tender moments in this experience. In 2007 I was prayerfully trying to determine what we as a presidency should do in 2008. The answer I kept receiving was a day of service. In August 2007 I attended our stake council meeting where Pres. Hymas, our stake president, indicated he felt impressed that our stake needed to more in our community, to connect with them and to serve them. I shared my promptings about a Humanitarian Service Day and he was pleased. I took the thoughts to my next presidency meeting and shared the encouragement I felt from Pres. Hymas. My initial feelings were to make things and send them to Utah. However all of my presidency felt we should do service within our stake boundaries. This is a very good presidency and I cheerfully accepted their counsel. We began preparation for this day.
We searched and called possible service opportunities. In April 2008 we had our Relief Society Presidencies Retreat. This is our spring leadership training for ward Relief Society presidencies. We gave each member of the presidencies an index card and asked them to record as many or as few of the items of possible service that they felt the sisters in their ward would enjoy doing. We compiled the desires of these sisters and came up with the 8 service projects and the 2 donation items.
In July and August we visited each unit and presented a DVD clip and explanation of what we planned to do in October.
As we approached the day, there were things we needed to have donated to make the service projects. One was blankets to tie. A sisters donated enough to make several tied baby or lap blankets. We needed a place to donate the books recorded to CD's for children. I called Cardinal Hill Pediatric Rehabilitation Hospital in Lexington. They were to the point of tears. They are beginning a new reading program for under-privileged children. They needed books. Then Friday night when we were setting up, we still needed toothpaste for our hygiene kits. A man came into the stake center as we were setting up. Lisa, my 1st counselor, explained to him what we were doing. He said he was a consultant and one of his clients regularly sends him boxes of toothpaste. He came Saturday morning with the toothpaste we needed. This list goes on with this but many tender experiences were had in preparations for this day.
As a presidency we delivered the items during the following week. The joy and happiness on each of the organizations we delivered to was just tremendous.
This event was a lot of work for our presidency but it yielded such good feelings that we are looking forward to 2009 when our area of the church is going to have a day of service for all the congregations in our area, about 95 units.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Saturday, Oct. 11, 2009
I'm the stake Relief Society president. This day was to be our Humanitarian Service Day, the stake Relief Society enrichment event for 2008. The major portion of our set-up was done the night before. We came early Saturday to get foods in the kitchen and set up the painting area outside under the pavilion. We were greeting and welcoming sisters by 9:30am. We had a great opening to set the tone for the day.
Then we began the work on 8 service projects: painted wooden blocks (130), stuffing little animals (100+), hygiene kits (80), taggy blankets (75), Halloween gift bags (??), tied blankets (12), books read to CD's (75) and letters to military personnel (??). We received clothes a lady could work or job interview in donated. There were enough of these to fill to the top 2 cars and the bed of one pick-up truck. We also collected a huge can of pop top tabs. All these items were for organizations within our stake boundaries. We finished at 3pm and had clean-up done by 4:20pm. It was a great day and we have only heard positive comments.
There were many tender moments in this experience. In 2007 I was prayerfully trying to determine what we as a presidency should do in 2008. The answer I kept receiving was a day of service. In August 2007 I attended our stake council meeting where Pres. Hymas, our stake president, indicated he felt impressed that our stake needed to more in our community, to connect with them and to serve them. I shared my promptings about a Humanitarian Service Day and he was pleased. I took the thoughts to my next presidency meeting and shared the encouragement I felt from Pres. Hymas. My initial feelings were to make things and send them to Utah. However all of my presidency felt we should do service within our stake boundaries. This is a very good presidency and I cheerfully accepted their counsel. We began preparation for this day.
We searched and called possible service opportunities. In April 2008 we had our Relief Society Presidencies Retreat. This is our spring leadership training for ward Relief Society presidencies. We gave each member of the presidencies an index card and asked them to record as many or as few of the items of possible service that they felt the sisters in their ward would enjoy doing. We compiled the desires of these sisters and came up with the 8 service projects and the 2 donation items.
In July and August we visited each unit and presented a DVD clip and explanation of what we planned to do in October.
As we approached the day, there were things we needed to have donated to make the service projects. One was blankets to tie. A sisters donated enough to make several tied baby or lap blankets. We needed a place to donate the books recorded to CD's for children. I called Cardinal Hill Pediatric Rehabilitation Hospital in Lexington. They were to the point of tears. They are beginning a new reading program for under-privileged children. They needed books. Then Friday night when we were setting up, we still needed toothpaste for our hygiene kits. A man came into the stake center as we were setting up. Lisa, my 1st counselor, explained to him what we were doing. He said he was a consultant and one of his clients regularly sends him boxes of toothpaste. He came Saturday morning with the toothpaste we needed. This list goes on with this but many tender experiences were had in preparations for this day.
As a presidency we delivered the items during the following week. The joy and happiness on each of the organizations we delivered to was just tremendous.
This event was a lot of work for our presidency but it yielded such good feelings that we are looking forward to 2009 when our area of the church is going to have a day of service for all the congregations in our area, about 95 units.
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