Helping Hands

It has been a while, and I am a couple of blogs behind, my apologies ;)  But I am really excited to tell you all about the experience I had at the LDS Helping Hands Service Project!  Helping Hands is a church program designed to provide community service and and disaster relief to those in need.  So on this particular project, there was a need for volunteers to help thousands of families in the Los Angeles area that needed assistance in getting school supplies and new shoes for school aged children.  So Brittany, Kelly, Michelle and I left Murrieta at 4:45 AM...I repeat FOUR FOURTY FIVE AY 'AM!!!  Here is Brittany the best morning driver ever :)

So we get to LA and there are THOUSANDS of people lined up for blocks and blocks waiting to receive these supplies.  It was really touching to see the needs in our very own communities.  So we register and they assign you to a bi-lingual position or english speaking position and they assigned me to bi-lingual.  I thought I was going to CRAP my pants!  Luckily Michelle came with us and she is from Mexico and speaks Spanish as her first language and I told her she was not to leave my side!

So the way it worked was the lines that wrapped around for blocks waited ALL DAY to come to different booths to receive things like medical check ups, back packs, school supplies, and shoes.  The Helping Hands Organization was assigned to the shoe station.  So the "bi-linguals" (or in my case the pretend bi-lingual) would talk to the kids and parents and get the proper shoes for the kids and fit the shoes on the kids.

It was a long day.  It was really hot, in addition to me trying to struggle through my broken spanish and coming off of a fever from the night before, but when you see these kids you just forget all of that.

I LOVED that little boy with the long hair!  I kind of felt like a creep for taking that picture, but he was so grateful and so CUTE!  I call him Simba.

There is Kelly.  He didn't like the idea of a little girl wearing those black knee-high boots, it was really funny!  I thought they were cute lol!

That was me in action.  Do you like my shirt?  On the back it said STAFF and I felt official.  I would like to note on the name tag it does say "bi lingual"

There is so many people out there that are in need in so many different ways.  The  Helping Hands Organization is a great way to help in a large organized way.  If you are interested in volunteering with them on their next project visit them at lds.org