Helping Hands

Church members in Burley, Idaho, proved the adage that many hands make for a lighter—and quicker—load when they helped relocate an elementary school and a hospital.

Working in three shifts, almost 200 volunteers from the Burley Fifth Ward, Burley Idaho West Stake, volunteered time, vehicles, and helping hands to move everything from desks to paper clips from the condemned Southwest School to the recently vacated Mountain View School. Latter-day Saint volunteers were met at the Mountain View School by additional volunteers, who unloaded vans and filled classrooms.

With so many willing to help, the work went quickly. “I expected we’d be able to move only six or seven rooms during the day, but by noon we had almost all the Southwest School rooms emptied of the major things,” said school secretary Jan Manning, who coordinated the efforts of volunteers and teachers.

The Burley Fifth Ward Relief Society brought lunch, and ward youth tended children for the volunteers. “It was a real success as a ward,” said Laurie McMillan, a member of the ward activities committee, which helped organize the service project.

Stake members offered further service when they helped move Cassia Memorial Hospital into the newly constructed Cassia Regional Hospital. Under the direction of hospital personnel, stake members bustled in and out every major entrance of the hospital, loading trucks throughout the day.

“We try to do service projects all the time,” Sister McMillan said. “We had a new school and a new hospital, so this was a great opportunity.”