Spreading Goodwill

In Germany, Mormons donated handmade quilts to orphanages and children’s hospitals. In Austria, they cleaned and renovated Jewish cemeteries.

In Japan, they refurbished and painted nursing homes. And in Brazil, they made pizzas to raise funds for a local cancer clinic.

In Santa Ana on Saturday, Tom Thorkelson chose to spend his day with about 50 other Mormons and some Indian friends to turn a junkyard at the Sikh Temple into a lush picnic lawn.

Thorkelson was among thousands of Orange County members of the Church of Latter-day Saints celebrating “Worldwide Pioneer Heritage Service Day,” an event aimed at spreading goodwill on the 150th anniversary of the historic trek that brought Mormons from the Midwest to Utah.

The first 1,000-mile trek was in 1847, when a small band of Latter-day Saints church members fled to Utah to seek religious freedom.

After 22 years of migration, a Mormon community of as many as 70,000 was ultimately built in Salt Lake City.

Camaraderie and a willingness to help one another were integral to surviving their travels through the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains, said Thorkelson, also the vice president to the Newport-Mesa-Irvine Interfaith Council.

“Service to one another was a daily staple throughout the now historic Mormon Pioneer trek,” Thorkelson added.

That spirit of volunteerism was revisited Saturday by about 16,500 Mormons participating in about 45 service projects across the county. The activities ranged from planting 1,000 trees countywide, to running food banks for the needy, to cleaning up youth centers, parks and equestrian centers.

Other efforts included 50 Polynesian Mormon children performing ethnic dances and songs at a senior home, picking beans to help raise money for St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church and transforming the pebble-ridden yard at the Santa Ana Sikh Temple into a 6,000-square-foot park for weddings, children’s playground and social gatherings.

“Throughout history, our services have always been for our own people,” said Thorkelson, 65.

“As we approach almost 10 million members worldwide, it’s time we go beyond our people and work with those who live among us.”

Side by side, about 50 Mormon and Sikh volunteers raked away stones from the dry land and then patched sod strips on top.

“With their help, we can do this so much faster,” Ram Pratap Singh said of the Mormon volunteers while digging up a mango-sized stone from the ground.

“It’s really nice to have their help and also learn their traditions.”