Whenever Emily Denman and other members of the Interfaith Youth Council work together on a service project, they come away with a common goal–“We just keep wanting to do it over and over again.

“That’s what happened with the 9-11 day of service and the youth day of service,” said Denman, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Now we have the interfaith youth night of service and yeah, the plan is to do it every year.”

Emily was referring to the Interfaith Youth Service Night held at Congregation Ner Tamid Tuesday, Aug. 25. On that night, Emily was one of more than 150 teens who showed up to work on a service project for the Henderson Animal Shelter. The youth came from the Congregation Ner Tamid, Midbar Kodesh Temple, New Song Anthem Church, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

For the past six months, Emily and her fellow members of the Interfaith Youth Council met once a month to plan the Interfaith Youth Service Night. At the first meeting, they selected the animal shelter as the recipient of their service. The council solicited support from the various congregations and received “a ton of donations.”

Emily surveyed the room filled with teens seated at tables cutting fabric and others along the walls going through boxes of donated items.

“There are people here sorting out donated fleece,” she said, “so we’re making dog toys and blankets for dogs at the pet shelter.”

That was a primary goal of the Interfaith Youth Night of Service to bring the teens together to build connections with youth from other faiths. At each of the tables, the participants were talking, laughing and working together. They were united in a common cause—service.