On the last night of Convoy of Hope’s Hands of Hope volunteer program of 2011, warehouse assistant David Silver stands in front of about 150 people who’ve shown up at Convoy of Hope’s massive 300,000 square-foot warehouse to lend a hand to those in need throughout the world.
“I want to see a show of hands,” he tells them. “Everybody put your hands in the air.” Obliging his request, the volunteers ranging in age from 9 to 92 give him a quick wave.
“These hands are the hands of hope!” he says poignantly. “This year alone we have shipped 33 million pounds of supply, aided 8.3 million people and logged 13,000 volunteer man hours through this program. Now you all are a part of it.”
Every Tuesday night, under leadership of about a dozen lead volunteers, people are divided into groups to work on a variety of projects ranging from packing food to folding clothing.
“We’re here to end world hunger and help those in need,” says Silver. “Our goal is to make a difference in the world and we believe it’s important to provide members of the community an opportunity to be a part of this effort.”
On this particular evening, volunteers are assembling packets of beans, labeling cans and counting huge boxes of tents donated by the Boy Scouts of America.
Amber Billingsly, a social studies teacher, is chaperoning a group of students from her school’s Key Club. She helps them methodically pack beans into plastic bags and then into boxes.
“My students really wanted to volunteer at Convoy of Hope because they know they will be making a big difference in the world,” she says as she dumps a bag of beans into a large box. “They know this food is going to help people who really need it that are either in a disaster area, or part of a feeding program, and so I think that makes them feel like it’s really worthwhile.”
Senior Kendall Hoffman works the end of the assembly line, packing the bags of beans into shipping boxes. “It’s neat to know that these beans are going to end up feeding people far away,” he says. “We’ve done volunteer work to help people here in Springfield but this time we wanted to extend that to people who need help in other countries.”
Wendy Larkin brought with her about a dozen volunteers. She brings different teams throughout the year as part of her employer’s program to support volunteerism in the community.
“We’ve just been so moved by participating in this program,” she says. “Last week we learned that the clothing we were folding and sorting had reached a homeless family in the San Diego area and that it was going to be their only Christmas present this year. It’s amazing.”
