Thousands of volunteers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints joined with school principals, government officials, neighbours and other willing workers on Saturday (26 March), to clean, paint, weed, trim and otherwise improve schools and other community facilities across the nation.
Students at Green Bay Primary School in Auckland's west were among some of those who benefited from the service of 'Mormon Helping Hands' volunteers. When children turned up to school on Monday they were greeted by a new, bright blue playground floor. On Saturday around 200 volunteers from the Church along with along with parents and staff from the school braved a wet morning to resurface the playground floor with seven pallets of safety rubber mats.
Local member of the Church, Debbie Neuman, worked with the school to coordinate the project. School principal Jude Black said replacing the new safety mats for the playground couldn't have come more quickly as the older mats were beginning to lift in places and posed a safety risk to the children.
Helping to improve the safety of the playground was one of the bigger projects at the school and one that had the biggest impact. Mrs. Neuman said that schools were a good choice for Mormon Helping Hands projects as schools often need a large labour pool to accomplish those projects that fall outside school guidelines or that are too big for school working bees to complete in a weekend. The labour provided to Green Bay Primary School by Mormon Helping Hands volunteers saved the school an estimated $20,000 in labour costs.
Other tasks completed on Saturday at the school included weeding and trimming the garden, moving mulch, building new seating and fixing class decks.
Makelesi Latu, who conducts music in her Mormon ward, travelled from Kelston early in the morning to help in the dirty work of pushing wheelbarrows filled with mulch to cover school gardens. Mrs. Latu does not have any children at Green Bay School but felt it was a good opportunity to contribute to the community.
Others who chose to give up their morning sleep-in on a wet Saturday included young adult helpers Lili, Sofia, Leota and Lesine who said through smiles that it was fun to come and help. Although the work was tough on hands they said they were happy to spend their time helping to lay the rubber mats - a job that took it's toll on manicures but not on spirits.
Parent Rebecca Bennett said the help would make a noticeable improvement to the school. She spent the morning clearing gutters and helping in the garden and although it was wet, she was willing to lose a Saturday at home to help make the playground safer for the children.
Also pitching in, school principal Jude Black helped paint a mural featuring the school's vision to 'Grow heart, mind and spirit.' She said she was very grateful to the Mormon Helping Hands volunteers for co-ordinating a project that was bringing parents, staff and community together.
She said the day had been "a culminating effort of planning and coming together with an impetus to improve the environment of the school for the benefit of the children."
In keeping with the vision of the school the community spirit was high, with parents, staff and Church members from different backgrounds working together to improve the school.
Local board member Catherine Farmer who came to view the work said "Schools service the whole community and it is amazing to see so many volunteers turn up on such a dull day to work together for the benefit of Green Bay School."
This is the fourth Mormon Helping Hands project to help a school in the Waitakere community. Projects have been completed at Woodlands Primary School, Rosebank Primary School and Kelston Intermediate Primary School.
"The Mormon Helping Hands programme is successful due to the donations of time and labour," says Mrs. Neuman. "These are commodities that are often in short supply in any community. The primary focus of the programme is to contribute to making a difference in communities."
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