The word of the month for June is GRATITUDE with a capital G! We have been blessed by so many volunteers who have worked so hard on our behalf, it is difficult to list them all. The folks from the North Rock Hill Church have been with us for some time now, but recently spent hours both painting several of our administrative offices (that badly needed it) as well as building new, sturdy shelves and restructuring our food pantry (which needed it even more badly) just in time for the Post Office Food 
Drive. the drive brought us over 4000 pounds of food for the fight against hunger in our community, and thanks to the church we had plenty of space to put it up. The Harmony Community Fellowship spent a day cleaning every nook and cranny of our building and grounds, and the Calvary Baptist Church held a wonderful breakfast and reception for our clients. Then McHales Pub joined forces with our founder, Tricia Kuhlkin, and her husband, Dean Cline, to sponsor the 12th annual Irish Open Golf Tournament as a fundraiser for our programs. this was truly a family undertaking, the owner of Mchales is none other than Ms. Kuhlkin’s son, Brendan. The event was one of their highest attended ever, and the funds will be a tremendous boon during the summer months, when our financial donations traditionally get a little low. As if all of that bounty wasn’t enough, the Church 180 of Rock Hill joined forces with the Mountain Lake Church from the Atlanta, GA area to spend two weeks on a tremendous building project which will help us transform a large part of our administrative building into a state of the art training center to teach homeless mothers new job skills and support their efforts to become independent.
Check our website as we will soon post more detailed articles on these events with lots of great pictures. In the meantime, I’d like to say a few words about volunteerism. In addition to all of these larger events, we have also had our normal stream of wonderful volunteers who stop by to help clean, carry, mow, fold, drive, and do a host of other tasks that we cannot afford to pay for.
It is virtually impossible to run an organization like this without some significant costs of operation. Staff wages, utilities, insurances, and more must be covered or we simply could not open our doors. But our determination is to keep these kinds of costs to an absolute minimum and funnel every dollar possible into direct services to the individuals and families who come to us for help. We are able to do this in part, due to a veritable army of generous men, women, and even some children who provide services, goods, and other needs at no cost to us.
Just as an example, the rebuilding costs for our new learning center will not use one dime of our donors’ money. It is all covered by a small grant we received, coupled with donations from the churches involved and many, many local businesses that donated supplies, along with many local professionals who donated their services or charged a very reduced rate. Special mention must be made here of Dirk Theys, the contractor who headed up the learning center project and has given hundreds of hours of his time, at no charge.
But volunteerism does even more than providing us with work and supplies while saving us costs. There is something almost magic that happens when volunteers get a first-hand experience of the people we serve, the work that we do with them, and the fulfillment of seeing hurting families move from desperation to stability and independence. Many times someone who is dirty, sweaty, and exhausted from the work they just helped us with has told me they had the time of their lives. Many times I see the line between volunteer and client blur into true friendship and affection.
Volunteers witness how courageously our clients face their challenges, and how hard they work to accomplish their goals, and they are inspired.
Many heartfelt thank you’s to those who have already partnered with us in these ways. And if you haven’t I encourage you to think about becoming involved. It may turn out to be the best hard work of your life.
