“I’ve been putting this off for a month,” Arnold said as he watched the teens washing American Red Cross cots in the hot sun. “They’ve done it in three hours.”

The teens, here for a youth conference, spent the afternoon at the Elizabeth Hanford Dole Chapter of the American Red Cross washing 150 cots used during Hurricane Floyd.

They also stenciled 290 new cots, cleaned the grounds and washed Red Cross vehicles inside and out.

“These kids have done a great job,” said Arnold, disaster services coordinator. “They’ve worked real hard, and it’s hot out here.”

Some 525 teens from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Rowan County, Charlotte, Hickory and Winston-Salem are at Catawba College this weekend.

They spent Friday afternoon volunteering at 21 Rowan County nonprofit agencies.

“We are very service oriented,” said Sue Davis, a Mormon youth leader in Winston-Salem. “It helps them appreciate what they have and what great joy can come from serving other people.”

At Horizons Unlimited, 25 teens spread two truck loads of mulch along the nature trails.

“I think it’s great,” said teen leader Evan Davis of Winston-Salem, no relation to Sue Davis. “A lot of our beliefs have to do with community and service. It helps build integrity.”

Davis and 23 other teens helped plan the service projects. Davis will use the nature trail work to help earn his Eagle Scout badge as well.

Ray Pizzino, custodian at Horizons Unlimited, said it’s been eight years since the trails were mulched.

“It makes them easier to use,” Pizzino said. “I couldn’t do this myself.”

Lining up community service work for 525 teen-agers was hard work itself.

“It was quite an ordeal,” Sue Davis said.

She contacted the Rowan County Chamber of Commerce and the Mormon church in Salisbury last fall for a list of nonprofits that might need help. Then she called them, one by one.

No one turned her down.

“They said, ‘What are you willing to do?’ I told them, ‘We are here to meet your needs,’ “ Davis said. “We’re doing everything from painting to picking up litter and weeding and planting.

“They were overjoyed to have free labor, especially the schools.”

At Overton Elementary and Salisbury High, the teens painted and did yard work.

Mormons believe community service can help steer young people on the right path, said Brad Brewer, a youth leader from Winston-Salem.

“We feel like it’s one way to combat everything that’s going on in the world today,” Brewer said.

They even moved the convention this year from Pfeiffer College to Catawba in part to do more service work.

“It tells us in scripture, ‘If you’ve done it unto the least of these, my brother, you’ve done it unto me,’ ” Brewer said.

Teens volunteering at the veterans hospital experienced that passage from Matthew firsthand.

“Many of these veterans have no family to visit them,” said Nancy Perry, chief of voluntary services at the Hefner VAMedical Center. “They need friendship and socialization.”

The teens played bingo with the veterans, served ice cream, entertained them with songs and visited those confined to their rooms.

“It means a lot to see that they’re interested and concerned,” veteran Walter Link said.

Link, a Vietnam vet, completed the substance abuse program at the VA. Now in the transitional housing unit, he hopes to live on his own by September.

“In one sense, they can look at the people here and look at themselves and see how blessed they are,” Link said.

Barbara Buckley said she hopes the teens will become lifelong volunteers.

“This is the greatest thing that’s happened here,” said Buckley, a volunteer leader at the VA. “Children grow up and don’t realize there is a need.”