A Whole Lot of Helping at Boise ‘HOP Day’

Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church in Boise, Idaho was full of cheerful people on Oct. 28 for its annual HOP Day. HOP Day, which stands for “Help Other People,” is a day set aside to help others in their congregation and community. And that’s exactly what happened!

Teams braved 30-degree temperatures to tackle fall clean-up projects outside:

  • One team went to the Boise Rescue Mission’s The Next Step facility and raked a lot of leaves. They filled the available dumpster! This is a return visit for us, and we’re happy to help. The Next Step is a transitional Christian living community that will significantly expand its capacity to help people take an intermediate step out of emergency shelters toward independent living.
  • Another team went across the road to our neighbors and friends, the Sparrows, and cut down two trees and stacked the wood, pulled weeds, and spread gravel to smooth out their driveway. The Sparrows joined in with us, too, helping with other HOP Day projects.
  • Outside the church, the Boy Scout troop who meets at the church came to help us out. They demolished an old unused shed on the playground and hauled everything away. They also dug out some old, damaged tires from the sandbox. We appreciate them taking on these projects!

The church hummed with activity as people worked on a variety of projects inside:

  • An assembly line of people built 100 birthday party-in-a-box boxes! They did everything from putting together the boxes to filling them with the party supplies to wrapping them in cheery birthday paper. The boxes include all that’s needed to throw a kid’s birthday party, including cake mix and frosting, plates, napkins, cups, candles, decorations, a birthday banner, crepe paper, and balloons. Plus a game and book in each box! These kits were delivered to St. Vincent de Paul’s food pantry to be given to families who need help throwing a party for their children.
  • A sewing team cut out and sewed 35 pillowcases for St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital. These are given to kids in the hospital so they have something more fun (and comfy) than hospital-grade pillowcases. The hospital told us Halloween and Christmas pillowcases are the favorite choices of kids, so the team used a variety of fabrics to make bright and cheery pillowcases for these two holidays!
  • The church smelled delicious as the baking team went to work in the kitchen, making pumpkin muffins, chocolate chip bars, Rice Krispie treats, and no-bake cookies. They also made jars of Russian tea and decorated them with fun Halloween fabric from the pillowcases. Then they boxed up the goodies for delivery to three nearby fire stations and to some of our friends and members at home and in care centers.
  • We also decorated cards for all of these folks, letting them know we’re thinking of them. Giant cards were made for the fire stations, and everyone signed them and added messages of thanks.
  • And we made colorful fall flower bouquets from tissue paper to go to our friends at home and in care centers.

One project was completed before HOP Day: Building a ramp at the home of one of our members so it’s easier for her to get into and out of her house.

We’d also planned to send a team to the Diaper Bank, but they regretfully let us know they didn’t get a large enough supply of diapers that week. We will help them out another time.

At the end of our busy morning, we joined together for a light lunch and time to share our morning experiences.

Many, many thanks to everyone who made this year’s HOP Day so successful. We appreciate the more than 50 people who shared their time and talents — and the many more who donated a mountain of supplies for the birthday boxes! And thanks to Beautiful Savior’s LWML and Thrivent for monetary donations that helped make the day possible.

Phyllis Royston

Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church – Boise ID

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