I'm still behind, but hopefully this will get me pretty well caught up. On June 7, I participated in a service project at Mutual Dell campground. It was all kind of a mystery from the beginning. The Sunday before, a sign up had been passed around for "service project at Mutual Dell". That was the description, no time or info on what we were going to be doing. I assumed more info would be forthcoming, and as I had no plans for that day, I signed up. I waited for more info to be disseminated, but on Fri evening when I'd still heard nothing, I got nervous about it and texted the RS president. She didn't really know what was going on either, but apparently texted the EQ president, who told her the time and that more info was coming in the morning. Not wanting to bother her any more, I accepted that bit of info and went to bed, planning to get up relatively early the next day to wait for the promised info.
In the morning, I woke up early to await this call/text/notification. I'd gotten a free red-box code (which comes more often than there are even movies I want to see, so I basically never pay to watch any movie I want now, so that's nice) and had rented Monuments Men. I'd heard it wasn't very good, but I was interested in the concept, so I decided to check it out anyway while I still had the option to do other things and not feel like I was completely wasting my time. It's not a super-long movie, and I thought I'd have time to finish it off in the morning so I could return it before I went to meet up with the carpool. I'd gotten most of the way through it when I got a call from a lady checking to see if I was still coming. I told her I was planning on it, and she let me know where and when the carpool was, which was only about an hour off at that point. She seemed busy, plus I knew that I needed to started getting ready basically immediately, so I didn't press her for more info.
I quickly went to get showered and ready. Not having ascertained what exactly we were going to be doing, I figured that my best plan was to wear tennis shoes and jeans that would work well for manual labor. I guess that's what we would be doing, like trail-blazing or something since I couldn't think of what else we'd be doing at a campground. I would have dressed differently if I'd know what we were going to be doing, but oh well!
When I got to the carpool location, I got myself all sunscreened up, since I hadn't had time to do it earlier then got a look at what was going on. It looked like a family ward function of some kind. I saw a lot of older adults there, some YM/YW, and a number of people who looked sort of handicapped. My first thought was "that's cool that these handicapped people are coming to help too!" As I looked around further, I realized two things. First off, I didn't see anyone I knew at all, and only one other guy who looked like he was my age. I talked to him briefly and learned that he was indeed in my stake, but in a different ward. I later saw him wearing an Asphalt Zipper hat and learned that he actually works with Gerrit sort of. Apparently he's the owner's son or something. I also realized after the prayer, which was offered by a clearly mentally-handicapped person, that actually A LOT of the people around were probably handicapped. It was then that I first got the inkling that this might be a special needs service project.
They then instructed everyone to get into carpools. I started to feel really awkward. I'd met that one guy sort of, but he'd disappeared somewhere and I was starting to regret having shown up. It seemed that I was going to be the only one from my ward at this shindig, as well as one of only of the only people anywhere near my age. Though I wished I could just disappear, I was working up my courage to go ask to join some random carpool when I heard my name. I turned around and saw the lady I assumed I had talked to in the morning standing near a car that looked like it had my ward's EQP in it. I walked over and confirmed both of these things. It turned out that the lady was the EQP's mom, who was a Special Needs Mutual leader, which explained how we had gotten recruited for the project. It was quickly arranged that I could ride up with Tyler, the EQP, which was quite a relief to me.
In the car, he confirmed my suspicions that we were helping with a special needs activity and I also found out that a few more ward members were planning to meet us at the camp. I was very relieved to not be the only one from the ward there, but I admit, I was a little apprehensive about the activity. I'm not super experienced in working with handicapped folks, though honestly I'm probably at least as used to it, if not more so than most people. Even so, I'm never quite sure if I'm doing the right thing around them, which is a bit uncomfortable. Despite my feelings of inadequacy, I decided to shake it off and make the best of a chance to gain more experience and lend a hopefully helping hand.
Tyler told me on the ride up that the reason he hadn't gotten the info for the project out as he'd planned was because he'd been busy preparing a plot to serve as a ward garden for those who are needy in the ward. Apparently, we were going to plant it together that evening as an activity and also help finish rigging up the automatic watering system, but it had needed tilled and other prep work done the evening before, which had precluded him from doing the intended text. It was pretty clear, however, that not having done so significantly impacted attendance, as in the end only 6 of the 17 people who had signed up actually showed up. Getting info out to people early and often is pretty important, basically.
As we drove up, I decided that American Fork Canyon is quite a bit prettier than Provo Canyon. This is probably largely due to the fact that it is a lot less developed and more wild, which is always charming to me. We drove past Timp Cave, which I think I will definitely have to plan a trip to sometime soon, if I can rustle up some people to come with me! I'd also like to go camping up there sometime this summer. I've talked to at least one of my roommates, who seemed game, and I think the other would be willing to come too. I recently bought a tent from work for 8 bucks, so once I get that, maybe we can start making plans.
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| Here's a shot of some of the obstacle course we set up as well as a bit of the parachute |
I was given a little list of games right as the first group was coming, and didn't really have time to look it over to familiarize myself with what I was supposed to be doing, so mostly I was working off my grade school memories. We did shaking balls off the parachute, making a "circus tent", by having everyone go underneath then sit on their end of the parachute, having people run and trade places under the chute as the rest lifted it up, and trying to keep the "poison snakes" otherwise known as jump ropes away from you. The participants seemed to enjoy the activities pretty well, though the jump ropes had an unfortunate tendency to keep clumping together and getting tangled into a big knot. After a few groups came through, my hands were starting to get pretty raw from having the nylon handle ripped quickly back and forth across them in random directions with a lot of force. It was also dang hot out in the full sun combined with the exertion of shaking the chute almost constantly. Fortunately, one of the guys working the obstacle course was nice enough to bring me out a cold glass of water on several occasions, without which I would have been in pretty bad shape!
One of the rotations went for what seemed like a much longer time than normal, so after we got through with all the other games, I decided to pull out my favorite one from grade school, which was "cat and mouse". This involves having one person crawl on top of the chute and one underneath while everyone else shakes the chute as normal. The cat on top then has to try to figure out where the mouse underneath is and catch them. It's actually a really fun game for everyone, and the group had a great time with it, but after that session, one of the leaders asked me not to do it again because he was worried about the chute breaking. I could see why he might be a bit worried about that, though I think there wasn't any real danger of it. I wouldn't have resorted to it at all if the session hadn't gone long!Most of the stations were in the same field I was working in, and during the rotations, two deer went through the forested hill near where we were. It was cool that so many of the participants had the chance to enjoy some wildlife, especially since the deer ran through an area so close to us and where other people were also walking around. It seemed like one of those small blessings designed to bring happiness.
Eventually, the rotations were finished and the participants were taken up the pavilion to finish off with a craft while we helped to clean up from the activity. That was pretty fun, and I got to know the three guys who had worked on the obstacle course better, which was nice. After that, we went back up to help with trash clean-up and the rest. By the time Tyler and I got back to the church, it was after 5:30. He asked if I was planning to go to the gardening project starting at 7, and though I wasn't real eager to go, I felt like I should. He'd been excited in talking about it, and in my accustomed fashion, I'd asked a number of questions about the subject of putting in sprinkling systems and whatnot even though I'm not terribly interested in it myself. Still, I figured I could be forgiven for taking a little extra time to finish my movie, eat dinner, etc. before heading over late.
The gardening was actually more interesting than I might have thought. By the time I'd gotten there, most everyone else had gotten tired of the work part and were enjoying the food and games which were apparently part of the mix too. I joined the couple of people that were still assisting Tyler in the gardening. I got to see how the sprinkling drip system was set up and help to do some of the construction of it in addition to getting to do a fair bit of the planting. I got to use pipe cutters on the PVC, which was surprisingly exhilarating, and also connect in some of the necessary joints into the system. It took a lot longer than had been planned to get all the gardening done, but eventually we finished it, and had the chance to go and enjoy the fire pit for a rest. Fire has a curious appeal to me, and I found myself content to gaze at it and interact with the somewhat shifting assortment of folks gathered around it for much longer than I'd intended. In fact, I stayed long enough that I felt I couldn't leave until I'd helped clean up the mess left over from the activity.
Overall, it was a very busy day, but quite a good one. It feels good to be involved in helping others in various ways, and I'm pleased that I got the chance to lend a hand in a number of ways, even though all of them sort of sprang up on me without much notice! Service truly is one of the most rewarding ways to spend your time.
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| The sunset that evening |
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