This year’s Day of Service will be observed on Saturday, September 9.  The Day of Service was started to commemorate the sacrifices of first responders and the resilience of communities across the county in the aftermath of the events of 9/11/2001.  The organizers of the original day wanted to recapture the sense of solidarity and shared awareness that characterized the country’s response to the unprecedented attacks on American soil and its people.

Since its inception, the Day of Service has continued to expand.  Communities work together to beautify and celebrate the places they live, and spend time with their neighbors in the capacity of service.

This year’s events are being headed up by Vicky Kent and Scott Gunter, as well a number of volunteer leaders for each individual project.  More information can be found about the planned projects at JustServe.org.  An oddity of the website is that typing in Malad’s zip code will not provide complete details of events, so visitors are advised to use “Malad City” or “Holbrook” in the search bar, depending on the location they are looking for.

Organizer Scott Gunter stressed that if people were unsure what they might want to volunteer for, the food collection, sorting, and storage jobs need the most people.  The website will indicate locations where extra help is still needed, though Gunter can be reached at 1-208-317-1612 with any questions about the needs or locations.  Additional contact information is printed below where available.

Heritage Square

8:00 a.m.-12:00 noon. Please join those in Samaria on September 9, 2023 for the national day of Service at the Malad Valley Heritage Square. The Malad Valley Heritage Square is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the history and culture of the Malad Valley. The Malad Valley Heritage Square is dependant totally on Volunteers as there is no paid staff or workers. A variety of service projects are available for all ages and abilties. They welcome you to join them to help in whatever way you can. Projects will begin at 8 a.m. and go till noon but volunteers are encouraged to feel free to come when they can and leave when they need.

Luke Waldron is heading up the event, and can be contacted at 208-380-3522 or

[email protected].

Food Collection

9:00 a.m.  Food will be picked up from your front porch at 9:00 AM on Saturday September 9th.  Donation jars will be available at Allen Drug, Sinclair Service Station, and Thomas Market or Venmo donations to @OneidaCrisis-CenterInc.  Please Help to Fill Carol's Pantry with NON-Expired Food, Toilet Paper, Kleenex, and Toiletries.  Contact Scott Gunter with questions about any of the days events or to volunteer or donate at 208-317-1612.

Food Sorting at the Baptist Church

9:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.  Food which has been collected will be sorted and prepared for delivery to the Food Pantry at the Victory Baptist Church.  Brian Jeppsen is the contact for this event.

Carol’s Pantry

11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.  After the food has been collected, volunteers will be needed to organize and place collected food on shelves at Carol’s Pantry.  Cindy Ward is the contact listed for the event.

City Park Trimming

9:00 a.m.-12:00 noon

Volunteer will be trimming unwanted tree starts along the green belt at the city park.  Bring trimmers,  pruning shears, gloves.  Gaylen Garrett is the contact listed.

Cleaning Public Shooting areas

9:00 a.m.-12:00 noon

The shooting areas just east of 1-15 and 1 mile east of  I-15 to be cleaned up.   Wear gloves, bring rakes, shovels to clean up the area.  The  garbage bags will be provided by the Forest Service.  Contact Byron Bott with questions.

Painting at Fairgrounds

9:00 a.m.-12:00 noon.  Meet by the "search and rescue" building. Volunteers will need to scrape and paint the railing around the track .  The Paint will be provided.   The arena will be unavailable as the high school rodeo is going on,  but volunteers will work on the west and north portions of the track. Vicky W. Kent is the contact person, and can be reached at 208-221-0606 or [email protected] with questions about this or other events.

Clean up behind Veterans Memorial

9:00 a.m.-12:00 noon

Please bring gloves,  shovels, hoes, or rakes, to clean the planter boxes that are east of the Veterans Memorial parking lot off main street.   Organizers want to clean and prep the boxes for flowers to be planted next spring.  Councilman Tyrell Neal is listed as the contact.

Replacing Siding Presbyterian Church

9:00 a.m.-12:00 noon

The vinyl siding is being provided and volunteers will be replacing a section of the older siding that has been damaged on the north side of the church.  They also will install a snow guard on the roof area over this spot.  Micah Gunter is the listed contact.

Cleaning Holbrook Community Park

9:00 a.m.-12:00 noon

Please bring scrapers, hammers, paint brushes, rollers to prep  the tables and then to paint them.  The paint will be provided by the community of Holbrook.