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Summarized by Kent Larsen
800 LDS Volunteers Participate in Oregon Service Project
Portland OR Oregonian 25Jun00 D1
By Lindsay Wise: The Oregonian staff
COLTON, OREGON --More than 800 LDS Church members, 200 more than expected,
turned out for a massive service project in Colton, Oregon Saturday to
benefit local residents and people around the world. The project, put on by
the eight wards and branches in the Oregon City Stake, was called "Neighbor
to Neighbor," and tried to involve as many members of the stake as possible
in service projects, concentrated in one community in the stake.
This year the project focused on Colton, Oregon, and the stake plans to move
its efforts next year to Canby, Oregon, then Oregon City or Mollala, moving
from ward to ward in the stake. Stake President Gene Trone says that the
project helps teach children in the stake to value service, "We teach our
children the value of community service from when they're very little,"
Trone said. "It's one of the many things that appeals to people. We consider
it a strength."
Members of the stake worked on several different projects in Colton.
including painting wooden toys for foster children and orphans, clearing the
ground in a graveyard, making booties for premature babies, bags for the
wheelchair-bound, wall hangings for orphanages and refugee camps and
cleanging local schools from top to bottom.
One beneficiary was Ref. Stan Hoobing, pastor of the Colton Lutheran Church.
Teenagers in the stake painted and helped convert an old school dormitory
owned by the Lutheran Church into a community center. "It's been marvelous,"
Hoobing said. "In small towns it takes teamwork or you can't get it done . .
. I've learned they (Mormons) are very compassionate and caring, and
sometimes your theological beliefs may totally differ, but you share a
spirit of service and community."
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