Mormon Helping Hands at Work in New York

Mormon Helping Hands at Work in New York

by Bill Eargle

 At 6:00 a.m. on Friday morning, November 23rd, one hundred and three volunteers from the Annandale Virginia Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) boarded buses to travel to Hurricane Sandy affected areas in New York to help with relief efforts there.  The volunteers were from various population centers of our local community including Springfield, Lorton, Burke, Annandale and Fairfax.   When they arrived approximately four hours later they donned yellow vests inscribed with the words “Mormon Helping Hands” as a way of identifying this small army of relief workers to those in need of help.

 The Helping Hands volunteers continued with the relief effort for three days working four hours Friday afternoon and seven hours on both Saturday and Sunday returning on Sunday, November 25th.  At night they slept on the floor of one of the LDS church buildings in Queens and ate food they brought with them that was cooked over charcoal in the parking lot.  They were very grateful for the two minutes of shower time at the church building that was allotted to each volunteer at the conclusion of the work day!

 The week after the storm teams of Mormon Helping Hands volunteers totaling over 3,000 from up and down the east coast concentrated on removing items and mud from damaged homes.  Now, as was the case with the group from our area, the Helping Hands volunteers focused on taking out drywall, insulation and flooring in an effort to prepare the houses for future rehabilitation and to combat the spread of mold.  Other faith groups, also there to provide assistance, have donned yellow vests and joined with the Mormons in a joint spirit of volunteerism.  

 The local group’s work was concentrated in the hard hit areas of the Rockaways, a peninsula of Long Island and Gerritsen Beach (near Coney Island) a small town/community in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, located between Sheepshead Bay to the west and Marine Park to the east.  When a Helping Hands team was given a cleanup assignment the obvious became apparent; the closer the house was to the beach the more devastation they would find. 

 Homeowners, many who had lost so much, were grateful for the assistance even if it meant having their walls and kitchen cabinets ripped out and flooring plied away from the foundation.  They knew it had to be done and were glad someone was there to help.  There was Lillian, a woman in her 70’s, whose home was substantially damaged by the flood waters and had to have much of the interior torn away who said upon receiving assistance, “This is the happiest day of my life, thank you, thank you.”  Another remarked after having his basement gutted and all the debris taken to the street, “I had no idea you all could do so much in 5 hours.  It would have taken me weeks.”  Many others would stop their cars and roll down their windows to say thank you as they drove by. 

 Upon their return the local Helping Hands volunteers expressed the feeling that although much work remained to the done in the affected areas, they had felt the joy that comes from serving and making a difference in the lives of others.    One volunteer, Jan Nielsen of Springfield said “I think we all found great joy in being able to do something that was so important - something that significantly impacted the lives of others in such a meaningful way.  I know the people who have been helped will probably never remember our individual names, but, hopefully, they will never forget the people in the yellow vests and surely we will never forget them.”

 A second group of 37 Helping Hands volunteers from our local area went back to New York over the weekend of December 1-2 to provide further assistance to those in the affected areas and more trips are being planned.  

 An inspirational video of initial assistance provided to the Rockaways by Helping Hands volunteers from the Manhattan New York LDS Stake can be found at http://vimeo.com/53357089