Special Needs - Hands, a BYU-Idaho I-Serve organization, helps create friendship and community within Rexburg.
Spencer Lee, the group’s volunteer manager, says he discovered the group while looking for service hours.
“I was looking for an opportunity to volunteer and get hours for that, and so I heard about Hands about two years ago, and I came to one activity and just absolutely loved it,” Lee said. “It was like the funnest thing ever, so I decided that I wanted to be more involved and asked if I could become a manager, and I’ve been doing that for about two years now.”
Looking back to past fall semesters, Lee said the group has had impressive turnouts, and he hopes to continue the trend.
“It’s a super in a low-key environment. I think everyone who leaves always says how much they love it,” Lee said. “Another reason is it’s a very social activity, a bunch of students show up in the fall, we get around 80 to 100 students per week coming to Hands, so a good way to not only do service but also make new friends and find people who have good hearts and like serving. “
Student volunteers, Yvonne Turay and Sandra Valdez, agree and say they plan to join future activities in the fall.
“I had such a good time getting to know everyone, and these people are so warm and sweet, and I want more of that in my life," Valdez said. "So I’ll definitely come back.”
Turay believes joining Hands is a good way to help those in need of more friendship.
“You know not a lot of people hang around special-needs people and like they don’t make you aware but it’s kinda like isolating when you don’t hang out with you because they’re just like regular people just like us with other things going on so I get something you know to try and make new friends cause they’re great people to talk to,” Turay said. “They’re hilarious, they’re gonna make you laugh. I’ve already learned so much, and you’re gonna definitely you’re definitely gonna have a fun time, and your heart’s gonna be softened, and thank you.”
Lee adds that the group does a variety of activities and spends time with people from both on and off campus.
“Basically, we invite it’s an hour a week on Wednesdays and we do different arts and crafts with adults in the area with special needs, so that range from down syndrome, autism, and well enough physical disability as well but we just held them out arts and crafts and make friends and hang out,” Lee said. “Tonight we made slime. We just got a few ingredients like glue, saline, baking soda, and food coloring, and made slime awesome. For one of my favorites, we did like marshmallow spaghetti towers that were really fun.”
For more information, visit I-Serve’s site or I-Serve’sInstagram during the Fall 2025 semester.