*Photo Credit: Paul L. Sherar
Doc Hendley
Founder and President of Wine To Water & One of the Top 10 CNN 2009 Heroes
FEE RANGE: $15,000–$25,000 [FEE NOTE]
TRAVELS FROM: North Carolina
While taking a break from college to travel, this bartender from North Carolina discovered the world's water crisis. When he eventually arrived back home, he realized that he had access to something that was capable of changing the world -- relationships with his bar customers. He used these contacts to host wine tastings and raise funds to implement water projects in the developing world. His plan was to give the funds raised from the "Wine to Water" events to organizations dedicated to solving the water crisis, but instead found himself in Sudan developing and implementing the project himself. Wine to Water doesn't just put in new water pumps, it focuses on education -- teaching the local community how to create and repair the wells themselves. His small organization has brought clean drinking water to more than 25,000 individuals in five countries.
Doc Hendley is proof that anyone, even a tattooed keg-tapper, can cure what ails the world.
Doc Hendley is the epitome of the individual who has made a difference. Tens of thousands of people around the world have clean drinking water they did not have before an idea popped into the head of this "tattooed keg-tapper" musician's head. Hendley realized that just by using his ability to tend bar and create relationships with people, he might be able to help the problem. At the bars where he worked, he started raising money to fight this water epidemic the best way he knew how, by pouring wine and playing music.
Hendley has taken personal risks to do the hard work of providing water and clean water education in far flung locations around the globe. He worked in dozens of refugee camps installing water systems for victims of Darfur's government supported genocide. Often inside the United Nations' dangerous "no-go" zones, he distributed water or chlorine tablets to people with only plastic sheeting for shelter.
Hendley was named one of the Top 10 CNN Heroes for 2009 (chosen from over 9,000 applicants by a panel of judges including Gen. Colin Powell, Whoopi Goldberg, Ted Turner and Sir Elton John).
Today Hendley's Wine to Water foundation aims to help the 1.1 billion people worldwide who lack access to clean water. By using wine events to raise money and awareness about the lack of clean drinking water in the developing world, Doc Hendley has harnessed a powerful social force and multiplied the generosity of many.
Doc did not dream of dedicating his life to humanitarian efforts in developing countries. Far from it, in fact. He graduated from NC State University with a communications degree he wasn't sure how to use. While bartending to pay the bills, he noticed the men and women sitting on the stools seemed to want to be part of something bigger. The 30-year-old Hendley got inspired behind the bar, and today his nonprofit group, Wine to Water, has dug, repaired and sanitized drinking wells for 25,000 people in five Third World countries. It's an idea that started with wine tastings and a humble donation jar.
Hendley published his first book in 2012 titled "Wine to Water; A Bartender's Quest to Bring Clean Water to the World." The book has received very positive reviews, and has been picked up by several universities as required reading.
Doc Hendley is the epitome of the individual who has made a difference. Tens of thousands of people around the world have clean drinking water they did not have before an idea popped into the head of this "tattooed keg-tapper" musician's head. Hendley realized that just by using his ability to tend bar and create relationships with people, he might be able to help the problem. At the bars where he worked, he started raising money to fight this water epidemic the best way he knew how, by pouring wine and playing music.
Hendley has taken personal risks to do the hard work of providing water and clean water education in far flung locations around the globe. He worked in dozens of refugee camps installing water systems for victims of Darfur's government supported genocide. Often inside the United Nations' dangerous "no-go" zones, he distributed water or chlorine tablets to people with only plastic sheeting for shelter.
Hendley was named one of the Top 10 CNN Heroes for 2009 (chosen from over 9,000 applicants by a panel of judges including Gen. Colin Powell, Whoopi Goldberg, Ted Turner and Sir Elton John).
Today Hendley's Wine to Water foundation aims to help the 1.1 billion people worldwide who lack access to clean water. By using wine events to raise money and awareness about the lack of clean drinking water in the developing world, Doc Hendley has harnessed a powerful social force and multiplied the generosity of many.
Doc did not dream of dedicating his life to humanitarian efforts in developing countries. Far from it, in fact. He graduated from NC State University with a communications degree he wasn't sure how to use. While bartending to pay the bills, he noticed the men and women sitting on the stools seemed to want to be part of something bigger. The 30-year-old Hendley got inspired behind the bar, and today his nonprofit group, Wine to Water, has dug, repaired and sanitized drinking wells for 25,000 people in five Third World countries. It's an idea that started with wine tastings and a humble donation jar.
Hendley published his first book in 2012 titled "Wine to Water; A Bartender's Quest to Bring Clean Water to the World." The book has received very positive reviews, and has been picked up by several universities as required reading.
Topics:
- Digging for Hope Turning Wine to Water & Other Modern Day Miracles
Doc Hendley teaches us to do what we can with what we have. He Illustrates the immense power of relationships to transcend perceived barriers and proves the power of one to transform the impossible into the inevitable.
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