Helping Hands, Australia Style!

Volunteers in bright yellow Helping Hands vests appeared all over Australia this spring as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints took on projects to improve their communities and serve their neighbours.

Their efforts were part of the Church's annual National Day of Service and added up to thousands of hours of work. The Helping Hands projects listed here are typical of what was done:

• Planting 3500 trees with the City of Stirling at a bushland reserve (Western Australia)

• Clean up of Riddells Creek Cemetery (Victoria).

• Planting and mulching native trees, shrubs and grasses and taking out weeds around the wetlands area of Unity Park and at Cobbler Creek (South Australia)

• Planting 2500 riparian trees along Hilliards Creek (Queensland)

• Removal of African love grass at Sherwood Park (New South Wales)

• Cleaning the kangaroo paddock, removing rubbish, and pruning trees at Black Cockatoo Rehab Centre (Western Australia)

• Clearing a beach path to be used by disabled children at The Entrance (New South Wales)

• Food drives for the needy in refuges (New South Wales, South Australia)

• Fence painting for Goori House drug and alcohol centre (Queensland).

• Planting, weeding, pruning and mowing at the Ashwood College perma-culture food garden (Victoria).

Other projects included work at schools and playgrounds, blood drives, donating and packing hygiene kits for homeless shelters, house painting, creek cleaning, window washing, and elderly care.

Often Helping Hands volunteers worked alongside folks of other community organizations.

Some of the projects were tackled by Latter-day Saint youth, by Young Single Adult groups, or by the women's Relief Society members. Most, however, were done by families—children working alongside their parents, and in some cases, their grandparents, too.