During General Conference in April of this year, Elder
Eyring spoke about the Church welfare program. This year, 2011, marks the 75th
anniversary of the Church welfare program. In commemoration, Elder Eyring, on
behalf of the first presidency invited members of the church worldwide to
engage in a Day of Service; more specifically for wards and stakes to come up
with a formal service project to benefit the community.
The Edmonton stakes of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints choose to organize a city wide food drive. Flyers were delivered to every neighbourhood and members were assigned routes
to drive through and pick up donations. I arrived at our stake centre with one
of my roommates and saw a large empty truck in the parking lot waiting to be
filled up with donations. My roommate and I then joined with another member of
our ward and drove around a nearby neighbourhood to collect donations. It was wonderful
to see so many doorsteps with donations! A few people came out to greet me when
I walked up to their doorstep to thank us for collecting donations for the Edmonton Food Bank. I then thanked them for their donation, which is what made the project
successful.
In less than an hour we were back at the stake centre to see
the truck filling up quickly and cars, vans, SUV’s and pickup trucks full of
donations driving into the parking lot. People of all ages helped pick up
donations and load the donations onto the truck. I loved seeing a group of children
inside the truck helping to sort the donations. My heart was truly touched to
see the community come together in donating much needed donations for the food bank.
I only played a very small part in this project but I am grateful that I was a
part of it.
The Edmonton Journal reported an early estimate of more than
71,500 pounds of food collected. Thank you Edmonton!
Wow! That is great!
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