Army of Mormon volunteers cleans up island
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More than 200 BYU-Hawaii students donned standard beach garb — T-shirts, shorts and flip-flops — on Oct. 24 while undertaking a large-scale service activity.
Despite the casual attire, there was nothing nonchalant about the service rendered by students. The small army of volunteers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints dispersed and spread over 13 separate service sites ranging from a cemetery to the grounds of the Mormon Church's Laie Hawaii Temple.
"It was really a powerful thing to see all of our students out serving the community and everyone giving back," said Emily Judson, executive vice president of the BYU-Hawaii Student Association.
Co-coordinated by the university's student association and David O. McKay Center for Intercultural Understanding, the event's theme was "The Spirit of Aloha."
"We try and do service that introduces new students to Hawaiian culture and the Hawaiian community," Emily said. "For this one, what we really wanted to help them understand is what 'aloha' is and what it means. That's a big thing here in Hawaii. It doesn't just mean 'hello' and 'goodbye'; it also means 'love' and 'real caring for other people.' "
Specific acts of service included weeding gardens, cleaning up yards, chopping down trees, picking up trash and painting. In addition to the cemetery and temple grounds, other sites for service included the beach, private homes in the community and a local elementary school.
The original plan hatched by BYUHSA included three separate, simultaneous service projects. But student leaders soon realized the McKay Center had a similar service outreach planned for the same day. When the two groups combined forces to pool resources and volunteers, the number of projects swelled to 13 and participation surged to more than 200 volunteers.
Like its sister school in Provo, BYU-Hawaii welcomes visitors to its campus with a sign announcing the motto, "Enter to learn, go forth to serve." According to university president Steven C. Wheelwright, the fact that student service is a staple of BYU-Hawaii's educational experience comes as no mistake.
"We see service as one of the fundamental things that we're seeking to teach and incorporate into the lives of our students," President Wheelwright said. "Our goal is really to teach them how to put into practice the gospel of Jesus Christ.
"What we've done is we've tried to make service pervasive so that everybody gets used to giving service on a routine, regular basis. Our hope is that there will then be spontaneous service given as well as these organized service projects pursued."
With no shortage at BYU-Hawaii of opportunities to serve, President Wheelwright reports that a spirit of service has taken root and imbued the hearts of the school's students.
"Part of what we've tried to do with this pervasiveness [of service] is having it everywhere so that it's not just one place — it's in a lot of places," he said. "By making it pervasive, people don't think of it as another category of thing; they think of it as part of who they are. We're delighted with the impact that that pervasiveness has.
"It is about building relationships and trying to bless the lives of others because yours has been blessed, and I think that's how our students see it."
