Last Saturday 180 Mormons (members of The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints) descended on Aguamarina Cabo Roig. They were not there to sunbathe, swim or to enjoy the beautiful beaches but to help pick up the litter that gets scattered by the wind over the winter and spring months. It is particularly important, to reduce the risk of flash fires and cut feet, that broken glass is removed before the hot summer season begins.
Mormon Helping Hands is a volunteer group of church members and friends that respond to emergencies and natural disasters all over the world. They are particularly visible in the United States where volunteers travel hundreds of miles to help other communities in trouble. Christmas Eve 2016 saw a disaster strike the town of Los Alcazares when the banks of a river burst flooding practically the entire town.
Los Alcazares is a Mar Menor seaside resort and is quite flat with very few hills or places of refuge. Mormon Helping Hands appeared in their hundreds along with national and local police, the fire service and red cross to help clean the mud from the streets and homes that were engulfed. Sometimes it was hard to tell the boys from the girls as so many were covered from head to foot in thick mud.
The Aguamarina service project was nowhere as interesting to watch as the muddy volunteers cleaning the streets of Los Alcazares but the happy faces rushing to pick up as much rubbish as possible was equally heart-warming.
Local leaders of the church approached the councillor for Tourism Sofia Alvarez some months ago to see if they could help the Orihuela Costa area with some type of service project. Sofia suggested Aguamarina and the rest is history.
Los Cucalos restaurant in Los Dolses provided 4 gigantic and delicious Paellas at cost price for the volunteers which was greeted with as much enthusiasm as was the clean-up project.
Raymond Kearney
