BYUSA student Morgan Frandsen serves pizza to her peers for the LDS Church 'Light The World' campaign. For this year's campaign, BYUSA members have planned several activities to encourage student involvement. (Dani Jardine)
Members of BYUSA are encouraging students to participate in the #LightTheWorld Campaign as Christmas nears.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began the #LightTheWorld campaign last year as a means to celebrate the life of Christ and promote world-wide service.
The church assigns shareable content — videos, scriptural quotes, GIFs and service ideas — to each day leading up to Christmas for #LightTheWorld. The purpose of this is to create simple and approachable ways to serve.
This year BYUSA has created a supporting campaign to bring #LightTheWorld to campus and encourage a spirit of service among students.
Within BYUSA there are seven committees or areas of service. The varying committees split up the days of December and its accompanying #LightTheWorld theme and planned different activities to get students involved.
McKenna Davis is a member of the AIM (arts, interests and music) committee in BYUSA and helped plan the service activity for Dec. 11. That day the campaign highlighted the Matthew 25 verse, “I was a stranger, and ye took me in.”
Davis said she likes the #LightTheWorld campaign because it is accessible to everyone, even students in the middle of finals.
“With finals everybody gets stressed and so ‘Light the World’ is just a sort of break just to let people stop on the way to their next class and let them rejuvenate. I think service makes everybody feel a little better,” Davis said.
AIM Committee Leader Erik Marchant said the most important thing while planning the Dec. 11 event was figuring out how to draw students attention and get them excited about the campaign.
Marchant and the AIM committee immediately thought about how much students love free food and wanted to find a way to turn food into a service opportunity.
AIM committee members gave out two free Hostess snacks and encouraged students to share one of their snacks with someone they didn’t know. The committee also offered free slice of pizza to students who wrote a kind note or text message to a friend they hadn’t talked to in a while.
BYUSA students, Abby Lindsay (left) and Brendan Nicholes (center) serve treats to their peers for the LDS Church #LightTheWorld Campaign. Students were encouraged to share a treat with someone on campus as a small act of service. (Dani Jardine)
BYU students Damyn and Alyssa Chipman said they noticed the free food and were drawn to the event, but when they noticed it was for #LightTheWorld, they became even more interested.
Damyn and Alyssa said they participated in #LightTheWorld last year and really enjoyed the program because of its structured application and simple service suggestions.
“It’s an example of Christian service ... so it’s great to be able to be a part of a big, world-wide Christian community all serving each other,” Damyn said.
This year Damyn and Alyssa have been participating in #LightTheWorld through small acts of service like reaching out to family and friends and spending time with the people close to them.
Marchant said BYU is a the perfect place to hold events like their campaign supporting #LightTheWorld because so many students are already service minded.
“There are so many people here on campus that can make a difference,” Marchant said. “We could literally light the whole world just from BYU campus.”
BYUSA will be handed out treats and compiled care packages in Brigham Square on Dec. 13. On Dec. 14 at 7 p.m., BYUSA will be showing 'The Grinch' and serving french toast in the Wilkinson Student Center.
In addition to these events, BYUSA is also running an Instagram campaign highlighting students who are serving during this Christmas season.