Provo High School JustServe Club Reaches 1,000 Hours of Service; Sets New Goals for this Year

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By Mary Richards, Church News

All through last school year, members of the Provo High School JustServe Club in Provo, Utah, worked to serve others in their families, school and community — going from a brand new club with only a few members to reaching 1,000 hours of service from September 2023 to May 2024.

And this school year, the club is off to a great start with the same goal.

Last year’s club president, Saebra Gilliland, from the Provo Utah Parkway Stake, said starting a JustServe club and doing service throughout the year built her faith.

“I think I felt like this was something God wanted me to do,” she said. “And so I was like, I’m going to do it, but I’m going to need a lot of help. So I had to trust Him, and He did make a lot of miracles in the whole process.”

JustServe is a website and app where volunteers can find service opportunities around them by location and interest. Organizations list their needs on the platform.

The service projects the club found on JustServe.org broadened the high schoolers’ interests in other people and what was taking place in the community. They found many opportunities to serve and needs to fill that they never would have thought of on their own.

Last year and this year, the club has written letters of encouragement to various groups, made a quilt, knitted hats, gardened at community grounds, caroled at Christmas time, babysat, made cookies, donated blood, put together activity kits for kids, transcribed historical records, set up and hosted school events, helped teachers clean classrooms and more.

One of Saebra’s favorite activities was when the club held a homecoming dance at a senior living facility.

The teenagers took turns being partners with and talking to their new older friends. Saebra said it was clear one of the women wanted to dance but was nervous about her balance. One of the young men offered to dance with her, and they both enjoyed themselves.

Saebra’s younger sister, Adira Gilliland, was a part of the club last year and is now its president, as Saebra has graduated high school and started studying at Brigham Young University. Adira said that as they looked for projects to do, she liked seeing how much other people were already serving in the community.

“You see the goodness of everybody — they are already doing service for each other, and it’s super cool,” Adira said.

‘This Would Actually Be Super Awesome’

Saebra said that in August 2023, her mom saw an article in the Church News about how to start a high school JustServe club and suggested it to her as something she could do, too.

At first Saebra thought, “not for me.” But she kept thinking about it and said she realized, “This would actually be super awesome — all the different ways we could get people involved and being friendly to each other and making service in the community.”

She got in contact with Paul Staten from the Church’s Provo Communication Council, and then Provo JustServe specialists Linda Barker and Don Barker provided support materials and information.

The first meeting felt small, Saebra said, but as the teens talked about what they wanted to do, they grew more excited about it and how they could include others. At that first meeting, they made the goal to do 1,000 hours of service during the school year.

“It was a lot — especially the beginning — a lot of just super busy, trying to do all these things, but also it was fun, having the big vision behind it,” Saebra said.

Around 20 members of the club were the most regular in performing service. Some would come to do group projects, while others counted the service they had done by themselves and by the end of the school year, the chart was filled in.

Adira said she felt great to be a part of something large and worthwhile. At the beginning of this school year, the club set a goal to do another 1,000 hours of service.

“I think we can do it because now people are less scared because we did it last year, we can do it again,” Adira said.

The Provo JustServe Club took part in a parade at the beginning of the school year and participated in “club rush” — an event where the high school students learn about different clubs and sign up. This year, people also signed up to be on the council.

“So I got myself a good council with people having different jobs and stuff, which has been super awesome to get more people called in the leadership of it,” Adira said. “It takes the weight off my shoulders and helps them feel more needed. And they have different connections. They can get a bunch of other people into it which has been super awesome.”

The Barkers said other teenagers hoping to do service in their high schools or looking to start a club should ask at their stake level if there is a JustServe specialist who can help them.

Don Barker said studies and surveys done by JustServe and others show strong benefits of service.

“When teenagers are involved in service outside of the Church where they’re dealing with strangers, they have more self-esteem, they have more confidence, they are better behavioral-wise,” he said. “It’s amazing how service affects teenagers in a very positive way, compared to those in the survey that didn’t give service.”

Service and JustServe is not just for members of the Church, either. Any teenager can jump in and begin.

“Service can build communities, and that’s what it’s really about,” he said. “JustServe clubs do that.”

Copyright 2024 Deseret News Publishing Company.