So Davis met with pastors at other local churches and organized the inaugural “We Heart Fort Dodge” day of service (stylized with a heart symbol). Even without publicizing the event, 65 volunteers came out to help.

“We wanted to do this thing because we want to love our city in tangible ways,” Davis said. “It’s just a day of kindness.”

This year’s event will be Sept. 23 and volunteers can sign up for a variety of service projects. Volunteers can sign up by emailing Davis at maggie.davis@harvestvc.org. Sign-ups will run until the event, but the deadline to secure a “We Heart Fort Dodge” T-shirt with sign-up is 6 p.m. on Sept. 10.

The day of service will begin at 9:30 a.m. with a prayer meeting at the City Square. From there, the different groups will split off into their service projects. All projects run from 10 a.m. to noon.

-Submitted photo by Tally Reisz
The Rev. Maggie Davis, pastor at the Fort Dodge campus of Harvest Vineyard Church, greets volunteers to last year's We Heart Fort Dodge service day.

Service projects include handing out quarters at local laundromats, cleaning up city recreational trails, a prayer walk around town, serving a meal to police officers and first responders, giving away freeze pops to kids and parents at Harlan Rogers Sports Complex and Dodger Stadium, crocheting little hearts with messages of hope to share around the city and reaching out to students on Iowa Central Community College’s campus. There will also be service projects at Athletics For Education and Success and at the YWCA of Fort Dodge.

“It’s just so simple — most people are shocked when you hand them a roll of quarters at a laundromat,” Davis said. “They don’t even know what to say.”

She added that these acts of service are done with “no strings attached.”

“Our whole message that day is that we believe God’s love is free, so what we’re doing is all free,” she said. “It’s not to promote any church, it’s not to make anyone come to church. We just simply want to show God’s love in a tangible, simple way with either free items or doing some work like a service project.”

Davis said she wants to invite volunteers of all ages and abilities to participate, so there’s a wide variety of projects to sign up for.

-Submitted photo by Tally Reisz
Volunteers with last year's We Heart Fort Dodge service day handed out free snacks to students at Iowa Central Community College.

Other local churches overseeing some of the service projects include St. Paul Lutheran Church, Trinity United Methodist Church, New Covenant Christian Church and Prairie Lakes Church.

Those who sign up after the T-shirt deadline are encouraged to wear red for We Heart Fort Dodge.