A sweet way to serve

Stacking racks of homemade sugar cookies decorated with colorful frosting flowers and hearts, St. Andrews Presbyterian Church member Don Farmer said he was happy to give up his Saturday morning to do something good for others.

“You need to give back to the community,” Farmer said. “God has been good to us, and we’ve been blessed. It’s good to give back.”

About 2,000 people turned out at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach on Saturday to volunteer for tasks ranging from decorating cookies to cleaning up local beaches.

The church’s twice-yearly Serve Day event brings volunteers of all ages to the church for a day of community service.

St. Andrew’s partnered with Disneyland’s “Give a Day. Get a Disney Day” program this year to offer some volunteers free day passes to Disneyland in exchange for a few hours of community service.

Volunteers at St. Andrew’s baked, decorated and packaged 1,400 cookies this week as part of the Serve Day program. The cookies will go to the sick, elderly, troubled teens and women and children in shelters.

Serve Day brings together people from the community to work together for a common goal, said St. Andrew’s volunteer Lisa Eddy, who heads up the cookie ministry.

“It’s not just the finished product; it’s people getting together,” Eddy said.

In another building on the St. Andrew’s campus, volunteers sat in a circle, knitting and crocheting hats for chemotherapy patients and the needy.

St. Andrew’s member Diane Johansen was part of the knitting circle Saturday, sewing buttons onto finished caps.

Johansen has participated in all of the St. Andrew’s Serve Day events for the past three or four years, she said.

“It’s a great way to tell people about our church,” she said. “It’s also intergenerational — there are people of all ages here, which is nice.”

St. Andrew’s church members Kappy Fuller, 13, and Maggie O’Callaghan, 7, spent part of their morning painting pictures for children in an orphanage in Tecate, Mexico.

“It’s fun,” Maggie said, as she put the final brush strokes onto a painting of a beach scene Saturday morning.

How to Help

For more information on St. Andrew’s Serve Day program, visit www.sapres.org./serve.