Sure.
That's going to be a Utah Mormon thing, specifically. And it's going to largely depend on the specific ward. The problem here is that there are LOTS of community things that are organized at the ward level, but aren't necessarily religious things.
For example, every year for Halloween, we do a trunk or treat. Everyone pulls their cars up into the church parking lot at 5:30 on Halloween, and the kids go trick-or-treating from car to car. They get LOADS of candy in a safe environment, and everyone gets to talk with their neighbors. Most kids (mine included) then do their own trick-or-treating afterwards. We also do block parties from time to time. We have a big Christmas party every year. There was a Daddy-Daughter campout last year, as well as at least one Father-Son campout. None of those things have anything to do with religion - at each of the things I mentioned (not to mention a bunch that I am probably forgetting), religion is not even an underlying theme. It's just people getting together with people. When something like that comes up, I at least go to the neighbors to which I am assigned and tell them about it. In other areas I've lived, people fall through the cracks. Everyone hears about something at church, and everyone probably has good intentions to invite those they know who don't go to church. But then, we get busy, and assumptions are made that people get invited when they don't.
I don't know - does that seem invasive? I can't imagine why. But I'll tell you what - people in Utah communities that don't organize that way will tell you that they feel the LDS Church is exclusionary. So, either way, you can't please everyone. What I know is that I've never had a negative reaction to going to someone's door and inviting them to a function - even from those that almost never go. And when my non-LDS neighbor whose husband died of cancer two years ago found her driveways and walks shoveled each time it snowed (by kids in the ward) for the rest of that first winter, she seemed to think the system worked okay.
Sorry, I don't mean to be verbose. But I think it does add a little insight into why people might have turned out to help. I don't know what I would have done, to be honest. I probably wouldn't have gone. But if I had to choose, I would rather be the type of person that would go - even if it meant sometimes looking like a gullible fool.
