With inadvertent streaks of red caught in her wind-whipped hair and the same color staining her fingers, Diane Yang brushed the curb of a West Sacramento roundabout with paint Saturday, offering a fresh reminder that motorists can't park there.

Yang, 15, a sophomore at Florin High School, was one of about 10,000 yellow-vested volunteers who spent the morning planting, painting, fencing, roofing and refurbishing at parks, schools and other public spaces as part of a service day throughout California and Hawaii for the Mormon Church.

"The economy the way it is, it's letting people know we're here for the community at large," said d'Artagnan Newbold, 46, of Elk Grove as he set bender board and decomposed granite into a pathway near Alyce Norman School in West Sacramento.

This is the second annual community service day of Mormon Helping Hands, said Susan Ramsden, spokeswoman for the Sacramento stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The stake partnered with West Sacramento and organized 1,200 volunteers to work at three sites – the River Walk, Bryte and Alyce Norman parks.

Last year, the group rallied 750 people to spruce up Land Park, Ramsden said.

"There's something you get out of standing shoulder to shoulder with your neighbors," she said. "We do it because it feels good."

About 1,000 of the group's volunteers were affiliated with the church and another 200 were simply community members interested in helping, like 14-year-old Israel Huerta, a freshman at River City High School.

"When it's done, I can come and say, 'I did that,' " Huerta said after hammering stakes for a pathway at Alyce Norman park. "It makes you feel like you've accomplished something."

Partnering with non-Mormons is an important part of the day, said the Sacramento stake's president, John Cassinat.

"We want to be part of the community," he said. "We might not all be the same faith, but we're neighbors."

Marlo Carter, 35, an accountant from Elk Grove, spread mulch in the planting beds along the Sacramento River while her three older children shuttled bark in a wheelbarrow, planted and painted, and her two younger ones picked up trash.

"It's a good learning experience for them," she said. "There's so much ugliness in the world but they can step up to make it better."

The event was likely the largest organized volunteer event in West Sacramento's history, said City Council member Mark Johannessen.

"People in suburbs like this usually go home, feed the kids, go to bed and do it again the next day," he said. "This work is important, but the value is getting people to know their neighbors and coalescing to do good."

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