Shine City Project Shine Again

[Ken Doo]

Shine City Project Shines Again

Saturday, October 13, 2018

Reported by Jeffrey Silerio

Shine City Project and the Cheon Il Guk missionaries of Generation Peace Academy (GPA) have teamed up on Saturday, October 13th for a service project at the Las Vegas Wash in the Clark County Wetlands Park. The 26 volunteers joined the semi-annual Las Vegas Wash Green-Up which attracts hundreds of volunteers at each event. Each Green-Up event focuses on revegetating areas of the Las Vegas Wash with thousands of native trees, shrubs, and other plants which helps to filter and clean the water that goes to Lake Mead. Lake Mead is an important supplier for water for Las Vegas and other surrounding cities.

The inspiration for Shine City Project came from Rev. Sun Myung Moon and Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon who envisioned Las Vegas being transformed from a Sin City to a Shining City. Though Las Vegas may be a place where sin and evil exists, it can be transformed into a city that gives hope to God and the world. Las Vegas can be a place of true love and selflessness, a city with a bright future.

Several volunteers share their thoughts on the Saturday morning's service project.

"Planting with Shine City Project was an amazing experience! Even though the weather was hot and I was feeling tired, I felt so alive. I could feel myself so happy because we were giving!" - Kana Ishii

"Personally, I was really inspired by it, because I could really see how much Las Vegas values nature. When I think about Las Vegas, I think about endless deserts. That's somewhat true, but that doesn’t stop the people of Las Vegas from putting effort to plant thousands of plants. To me, it says that they really value nature and what God has to offer!" - Mitsuyoshi Orikasa

"It brought me so much hope to see people doing service projects and wanting to change the world in a positive way! I've always wanted to do more for this community in whatever ways that I can, so while planting these grass plants, I felt a lot of joy from it!" - Munekazu Nakamura

Service projects are being organized by Shine City Project every Saturday morning. More information about Shine City Project and upcoming service projects can be found on their Facebook page (fb.com/ShineCityProject) and website (shinecityproject.org).