Miracles and Memories: Celebrating Success in Queen Creek’s Service Initiatives

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By Emerson Manning, Church News

After being called as Queen Creek Arizona Stake Relief Society president, Holly Dunn decided to learn more about JustServe. She chose a project at a local food bank were some JustServe specialists in her stake had shared on their positive experience.

A few years later, Dunn was called as Queen Creek JustServe specialist. As she has continued service projects that she began in her stake Relief Society calling, she has been able to help others reach outward in the community and build faith among Church members and neighbors in Queen Creek.

“Serving alongside friends and neighbors of all faiths has been humbling and inspiring,” Dunn said.

JustServe has created opportunities for individuals and families to come together to serve those in need — creating unexpected miracles. “I don’t want it to seem like JustServe is about big projects, because it’s not; it’s about the individuals creating connections with these other nonprofits that are doing good work. It is the individuals that are the focus, that’s who we’re going after, and these big projects are just like a jumping-off point,” said Dunn.

JustServe is a movement, and it can be individual volunteers and how it’s changing their lives.

President Micah A. Rogers, stake president of the Queen Creek Arizona Stake, shared how he has been impacted by seeing members of the Church, as well as members of the community, come together unified in purpose. When he sees the smiles and pure joy of others — those who have not been to church in a while, a family that has been struggling or even a teenager who has no interest in attending church — interacting with other Latter-day Saints or members of the community, he feels inspired.

‘The Joy That Only Comes From Serving Each Other’

The Queen Creek Citrus Picking event was built on an idea that started back in 2017. What started as a ward service activity soon grew into a community outreach. The ward mission leader at the time decided the ward should take advantage of living in an area full of citrus trees, where the fruit often go to waste. His father is a member of the Catholic church and a founder of the Father McGivney Food Bank in Queen Creek; as the ward would gather those willing to collect fruit, what was collected was later donated to Father McGivney’s.

By the end of 2020, the ward began to brainstorm on ways to get the whole stake involved; what started out as a small group of volunteers became over 100 volunteers by the end of the service project in 2021. But they didn’t stop there. They turned to their neighbors and anyone who would be willing to help. Ryan Buchanan, who was serving in an elders quorum presidency at the time, helped spread the word via Facebook. Since then, it has grown every year, as neighbors continue to help and reach out to invite others to serve.

On February 3 earlier this year, the Queen Creek Citrus Picking event brought together more than 600 community volunteers, all united in the goal to serve their neighbors and provide food for those in need. The volunteers visited about 63 homes, where they picked more than 80,000 pounds of citrus; by 10 a.m., 54 pallets of citrus were being loaded at Father McGivney Food Bank. Midwest Food Bank donated gaylord crates and the use of its forklift to help load pallets of fruit into the distribution trailers.

Buchman had reached out to the Community Action Food Bank in Utah, offering them some of the citrus that had been picked. After accepting 10 pallets of citrus, the Community Action Food Bank generously donated two pallets of canned green beans, as well as hundreds of sleeping mats for homeless people.

“Picking and donating citrus proved to be a great way to meet and work alongside our neighbors and to cultivate relationships with local food banks who work hard every day to help those in need,” said Dunn. “Citrus picking has become a tradition, the first Saturday in February, and each year we connect with more homeowners who want to donate their fruit and more community members who want to bring their family to serve in the community. Everyone who participated had fun and felt the joy that only comes from serving each other.”

A Passion for Service

In 2023, President Rogers felt inspired the stake needed a community service project to unite the stake in preparation for stake conference. Finding a project large enough for an entire stake plus community members seemed difficult, but with prayer, trust and guidance, President Rogers’ vision came together.

The day of service fair was created to help members of the community come together to make a “tangible impact.” “I had a journal of miracles that went along with that project,” said Dunn as she reflected on the number of people who dedicated time, talents and goods in order to make this day of service possible.

Organizations such as Of One Heart and Gathering Humanity, which provide aid to refugees, and Sisters 4 Kids, which collected books to help brighten children’s futures, all provided the tools and resources to help volunteers connect with individuals who share the same values and discover their passion for service.

The second annual 9/11 Day of Service fair was in September 2024. There were 17 different projects volunteers could work on, benefiting 16 local JustServe organizations. Bringing together nearly 500 volunteers, the fair helped unite a community and teach it how to help serve alongside organizations. The 9/11 Day of Service has helped transform a day of tragedy into a day of doing good, of building hope and of making a difference.

‘God Always Provides’

The Father McGivney Food Bank collects turkeys from local grocery stores to pass out to those in need. In 2020, COVID-19 added some restriction to the turkey donations. Many of the volunteers were not able to fill their current roles, as a lot of their volunteers are older and were nervous about being out and getting sick.

The day before the turkeys were to be handed out, Robert Varela, the director of the Food bank, told Dunn he was unable to go out to collect the turkeys and asked if she would reach out to those who could help. Word was spread throughout the stake, resulting in 150-200 turkeys donated by the end of that same day. Every family was able to receive a turkey that day.

During the 2021 turkey drive, volunteers came from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. to drop off their turkeys and other food supplies. The needs have increased, as almost 400-450 cars come through. Toward the end of the night, it became evident that there was a lack of turkeys. As Dunn became worried if they would be able to make ends meets, Varela simply reminded, “God always provides.”

As Dunn entered the store that was willing to sell them the needed 40 turkeys, she was greeted by the store manager, who informed her that 32 turkeys — which a local high school student council had purchased had not been picked up — were available to be loaded into her car. That night, the volunteers at the Father McGivney Food Bank witnessed a miracle, as they needed to purchase only eight turkeys.

The 2024 turkey drive will mark the fifth year the Queen Creek Arizona Stake has partnered with the Father McGivney Food Bank in collecting and distributing turkeys and additional Thanksgiving food items to local families in need. The food bank also now has a contract with the bishops’ storehouse to receive dry goods. Service missionaries now play a pivotal role, as they are a part of the Monday distribution at the food bank.

The ‘Secret Sauce’

The stake’s communications council consists of JustServe specialists as well as members of other faiths and people from nonprofits coming together to help members of the community look inward to serve outward.

Dunn, who now serves on the JustServe coordinating council, said, “The councils and committees that seek inspiration and commit their time and talents to working together are the ‘secret sauce.’”

To bring together a community to help serve those in need, there first needs to be a group of local individuals and leaders willing to work in tandem and have the support of supervising leaders. Dunn spoke on how impactful it has been to have a supporting stake presidency behind the JustServe projects. “It’s really important that those stake presidents have a view that they know that JustServe isn’t extra on their plate [but] that there are ripple effects that they don’t have to manage that will do so much good in their community,” said Dunn.

She also said that Buchanan, the stake social media specialist, has played a key role in making JustServe successful. His marketing ideas have often helped expand the council's vision of reaching the community; he has even trained the committee on how to talk to friends or make church announcements about upcoming projects in an engaging way.

President Rogers said that “there is an absolute untapped, unharnessed or harnessed talent and potential with the members of the Church they don’t even know that they have it in them. And the JustServe specialists are the ones that get to bring that out of them. As a stake president, we need to unharness the talents of our members. Once that happens, the miracles happen that no one would have expected.”

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