Helping Hands Service Day a Huge Success


I had the pleasure of organizing our stakes second annual Helping Hands Service Day on April 17th, 2010. The day's events were a huge success and included 3 stake-organized projects and one project organized bya local Ward.

The stake projects supported Earth Day and involved 3 different community clean-up projects. The first project was in conjunction with the EcoQuartier Peter McGill. With their support, 96 Helping Hands volunteers cleaned 4 blocks in downtown Montreal's Shaughnessy Village. This is an underserviced area of Montreal, that is currently undergoing rejuvenation. It is the most highly populated neighbourhood in Montreal.



Our second project was done in conjunction with the McKay Centre School, a school for handicapped and deaf children. With the aid of the EcoQuartier NDG, stake members cleaned up the centre's play ground. Thirty five people including many children participated at this site. They removed over 20 bags of garbage from the grounds.



Our third project was organized by one of our Ontario wards and involved cleaning a city park in the Cornwall area. Twenty people participated at this site.

On this same day, a Montreal are ward organized their annual Blood Drive in conjunction with HemaQuebec. The youth and members of the ward served as volunteers for the collection team. Over 70 units of blood were donated by members of the stake and others in the community.

Overall, we had over 150 volunteers participate throughout the stake. I am always amazed by the generosity of people, their willingness to give their time, and by their desires to make meaningful contributions in the community.

Catherine