Sep. 12—A collection of local congregations belonging to the Spokane Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is inviting anyone who would like to help to join them as they assist Elk residents on Saturday with recovery, reconstruction and the clean-up of remnants from the 2023 Oregon Road Fire.
A little over two years ago, the Oregon Road Fire tore through 11,000 acres, killed one person and burned down over 100 homes in Elk. Victims of the fire are still feeling the effects of the flame’s devastation.
According to a Facebook post from the Friends of the Spokane Washington Stake, around 14 families from the Riverside Ward lost their homes, but many more families suffered extensive damage to their property.
“If there’s going to be hope in this world, we have to create it,” said Timothy Cobb, the president of the Spokane Stake . “We feel at the very core of us that we have an opportunity to support wavering hope, we have an opportunity to create new hope, and we have an opportunity to simply sustain long-standing hope that we can rise out of the ashes.”
Volunteers are encouraged to meet at the church’s Riverside chapel at 34221 N. Newport Highway in Chattaroy.
The event is expected to start at 8 a.m. and end around noon. The projects completed by the Spokane Stake are part of the Church’s Just Serve program that connects potential volunteers with opportunities to contribute to their community. Anyone who would like to find an opportunity to help their community, or would like to sign up in advance for Saturday’s event, is encouraged to visit justserve.org and enter their zip code in the search bar to find volunteer opportunities near them.
As part of their annual Just Serve September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance, Cobb hopes to see between 300 and 400 faces from different congregations, denominations and walks of life. In total, there are eight different homes and families that volunteers will be assigned to help.
There are multiple service opportunities available for volunteers, including cutting down charred trees, building fencing, spreading gravel and painting structures. AriAnna Johnson, coordinator of Just Serve, said all ages are welcome, and she feels confident she can find something for everyone to do. She’ll be at the Riverside Ward on the day of the event coordinating and directing people who didn’t sign up online ahead of time.
For anyone who’s unable to make it out to Elk but still wants to help in some way, Johnson said there’s no need to worry.
The Spokane Stake Center, located at 1620 E. 29th Ave., is set to have ornament-making and rock-painting on Saturday. Everything created there between 8 a.m. and noon will go directly to folks who suffered from the Oregon Road fire.
“Serving my neighbor is very important to me,” Johnson said. “I think when we reach outside of ourselves and serve other people, a lot of good can happen. If I can be even just a little bit of good, and then it just continues, I think that is my role as a good human being.”
Johnson and Cobb both hope that even just a single good act will inspire others to keep the ball rolling when it comes to benevolent deeds.
Cobb said that Saturday’s event is, in essence, a continuation of one they held in July for youth members of the Spokane Stake ages 12 to 18 to help Elk residents. That event was so successful, Cobb said, that afterwards they realized they had to go back and do more. This time around, instead of limiting the age range for volunteers, they wanted to open it up to any age.
Chainsaws and manual post drivers for building fences are the two most-needed tools for Saturday’s event. Johnson said if people who want to volunteer have either of those tools, or even a shovel they’d be willing to bring, it would help them .
While Johnson will be showing people where to be and what to do on Saturday, Cobb said he’ll either be on a tractor or helping build a fence. For Cobb, who grew up in agriculture, being on a tractor is nothing new.
Cobb owns a real estate and property management company where he and his wife oversee the management of farmland for a living. One of their biggest clients, Cobb said, is Shriners Hospital for Children, as several farms have been donated to them over the years in support of their mission.
Given its proximity to the September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance, Cobb and Johnson hope that the event on Saturday will turn remembering the tragic events of 9/11 into a catalyst for change by focusing on our shared humanity through serving others.
“The crux of what we do is to follow in the Savior Jesus Christ’s way of serving people,” Cobb said. “That is what he would do if he was here and what he did do when he was here. Without (getting into) any real theology, we can help hands that hang down, and we can lift people’s heads up and give them hope. That may just be one shovel at a time, that may be one tree coming down at a time.”