Elgin Lutheran churches lend helping hands

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's national "God's work. Our Hands" day was Sunday and four congregations in Elgin came together to work on community projects.

Volunteers from Bethlehem, Christ the Lord, Holy Trinity and Zion Lutheran churches joined forces to help out at Lords Park and Lords Park and Lowrie elementary schools to knock some items off their to-do lists.

Some of the projects included cleaning the park, building basketball hoops, painting walls and working on the Quilts of Valor for members of the military.

"They put out a calling and Bam!, Zoom!, it came together," said Mert Varboncoeur from Bethlehem Lutheran Church of the group of more than 50 volunteers.

"I was so happy when they decided to do the basketball hoops because we needed it for a long time," said Minnie Claros, a volunteer from Bethlehem, of the effort to put up new basketball backboards and hoops at Lords Park Elementary School.