Parks Coordinator Partners with Missionaries and Others to Beautify Community

Sarah McAfee

By Kerry Schaper, Columbine Stake Communication Director

Meet Sarah McAfee, parks operations coordinator for the Foothills Park and Recreation District. She works with community volunteers who want to help keep local parks desirable areas for all to enjoy.

McAfee has organized and managed the Columbine Stake annual day of service for the past eight years. She said her biggest challenge for the group of more than 100 volunteers who participate is making sure she has a variety of projects planned so everyone who participates feels they have made a contribution.

Throughout the spring and summer months, full-time missionaries serving in the Columbine Stake regularly help McAfee. One group of missionaries helped her plant trees, while another group mulched trees in another park. They have painted park structures and cleared areas along creek beds. McAfee said she looks forward to working weekly with these enthusiastic, service-oriented missionaries. She does wish she could call them by their first name (all church missionaries are called “Elder” or “Sister” plus their last name)!

Volunteers from other local churches, homeowner associations and Boy Scouts working on their Eagle projects regularly work with McAfee. Families and others, including a Mom’s group who brought their children to help pick up trash in the parks, enjoy McAfee’s friendly and capable leadership. Her goal is always to make the work fun and satisfying.

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