BYU NewsNet - Women at conference learn through service

Women at this year's Women's Conference will assemble 70,000 hygiene kits, 15,000 school kits and 500 quilts for Church Humanitarian Services.

Janet Scharman, Women's Conference Chair, said the women who come to the conference love giving service.

"The vast majority of survey respondents each year since we instituted service as a component of Women's Conference in 1999 has been very positive," Scharman said. "The women love giving service."

Scharman said the organizers of the conference work with Church Humanitarian Services to determine which service projects they are in need of.

"Our first service priority is to meet the requests of the church," Scharman said. "They tell us what they need and in what quantities. They supply the necessary items. Women's Conference supplies the space, woman power, logistical support, etc."

Dean Walker, manager of the Latter-day Saint Humanitarian Center, said organizers of the Women's Conference meet with the Humanitarian Center throughout the year before a decision is made on what projects are needed most.

Walker said the kits produced at the Women's Conference help the church meet needs in disaster situations.

"They're a standard product that the church sends on humanitarian needs," Walker said. "It's very, very positive feedback from anybody who receives them."

Because the church can't predict where and when the kits will be needed, Walker said the kits are put in inventory to allow the church to send them out as quickly as possible.

"You can't have a disaster and then try to make them," Walker said. "It doesn't work that way."

In addition to providing kits and quilts for Church Humanitarian Services, the conference organizers work with local agencies to help with community projects.

This year service projects aim to help schools with teaching aids for sensory-impaired, autistic, and at-risk children.

When Tammy Elsmore came to Women's Conference last year, she said didn't expect service to play such a vital role in the learning experience.

Thanks to the organized service projects, however, that's exactly what happened.

"I think it actually helped the spirit of the conference," said Elsmore, a Las Vegas resident. "Because that's why we're there - to serve."

Elsmore said she remembers more from the talks she listened to in the Service and Learning rooms than she does from other talks because of the spirit that was in the rooms.

She said giving service was also the best way to meet people at the conference who were from other places.

"It actually brought us together as sisters. We got to meet more people," Elsmore said. "You got to know these women and recognize that these people came from all over the United States."