Rock Hill’s 40th year of ‘Hope’ begins with breakfast

Tuesday morning, the community will celebrate four decades of helping neighbors while planning how best to continue that legacy.

Rock Hill will celebrate a “Day of Hope” in honor of the 40th anniversary of Project Hope. To mark the anniversary, the public is invited to a free “Hope-Raising Breakfast” at First Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.

In 1975, volunteers from 15 local church congregations came together to start Project Hope, a crisis ministry serving residents in Rock Hill and the school district area. The project now operates four days a week out of the house at 411 Park Ave., where the ministry provides food assistance, medicine and help paying utility bills.

Sheila Neisler, who is handling marketing for the breakfast, says the charity acts as a first responder when local residents face a financial emergency.

“Sixty-two percent of our residents can’t afford a $500 expense, like a car accident or a sick child,” Neisler said. “We’re all created equal, but recessions and recoveries aren’t.”

While breakfast is free Tuesday morning, Project Hope will use the event to promote its One-Can Can Drive. Businesses put out a Project Hope can to collect money – one dollar is enough to get the project six pounds of food – and donors will have their names displayed on a “Hope-Raiser” card inside the business.

In addition to breakfast, the public will hear from speaker Tamara Bunte, the owner of Advanced Results and a motivational speaker with a background in sales training. Bunte has spoken in the past for the Dale Carnegie and Tony Robbins organizations and worked with Fortune 500 companies.

“She will be teaching us how to raise hope in our businesses,” Neisler said. “If you feel good about where you work, you can feel good about helping out in your community.”

Today, Project Hope distributes 120 tons of food a year, enough to provide 188,000 meals. Sixty volunteers work around 10,000 hours at the facility.

About 4,000 families used Project Hope’s services in 2014, and the ministry estimates 25 percent of the families served this year are requesting assistance from the project for the first time.

This story was originally published November 16, 2015 at 7:38 PM with the headline "Rock Hill’s 40th year of ‘Hope’ begins with breakfast."