Palouse faith organizations working on service projects today

Seven Palouse-area faith organizations are collaborating on a series of service projects, several of which will be completed today.

The groups involved are the Pullman Islamic Center, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse, First Presbyterian Church of Moscow, First United Methodist Church of Moscow, Calvary Chapel of the Palouse and Community Congregational United Church of Christ.

The projects they plan on working on include the Jefferson Elementary School community garden, Koppel Farm community garden clean-up, clothing drive for Moscow School District, providing volunteers for Whitman County Emergency Response Team, Blessing Beds (building beds for children who have no bed), Potlatch Food Bank birthday kits, demolition of a derelict structure in Judy’s Trail Nature Area in Troy, Pullman parks cleanup, Palouse Empire Fairground cleanup and painting, Moscow Ice Rink cleanup and a Red Cross blood drive. Most of the projects will be completed today; some were already completed, according to organizers.

One of the organizers, Gillian Bowman, said about 500 people are participating in this event.

The group will also meet for a barbecue at 5 p.m. today at Mountain View Park in Moscow after completing the projects.

Bowman said her church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has been doing service projects since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and this first-ever effort with other groups grew out of that.