6 - Following the Leader

Summary

In the fall of 2012, Hurricane Sandy devastated parts of New York and surrounding areas. Within a few days of the hurricane, Mormon volunteers donned yellow vests with a “Mormon Helping Hands” logo and divided into small teams to help local residents begin to clean up. For the next several months, they spent weekends in “chainsaw brigades,” clearing fallen trees, removing mud and debris from homes, tearing out damaged walls and carpet, and disinfecting what remained (Trapasso 2012). The LDS Church estimates that 28,000 Mormons logged more than 275,000 hours of labor – a remarkable figure given that Mormons make up a very small share of the population in the region (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 2012a).

This vast volunteer effort was led and coordinated by the regional and local LDS leadership. Recall that in Chapter 1 we described the importance of religious authority within Mormonism. With authority comes hierarchy, which means a clear “chain of command” for activating Church members. For example, volunteers from the Princeton First Ward responded to a call from their stake president that was delivered through the ward’s bishop and other ward-level leaders such as the “Elders Quorum President” (the leader of a ward’s priesthood organization for men). Within a week of the hurricane, ward members were asked to attend or participate via conference call in an “all hands” training session to learn the basics of participating in the Mormon Helping Hands program. As part of ten- to twelve-person teams, the typical active ward member spent two or three weekends working from late October to late December. Nor was the volunteer effort limited to Mormons in storm-ravaged communities. Mormons from less-affected areas traveled to New York and the New Jersey shore, camping at LDS ward buildings while they worked for the weekend (Snell 2013).