Rowan Helping Ministries celebrated its volunteers at the annual Volunteer Recognition Banquet on March 20 at Christ United Methodist Church in the Family Life Center.
Rowan Helping Ministries celebrated its 25th anniversary and staff made a special presentation to the volunteers. Staff gave each volunteer at the banquet a commemorative coffee mug.
Rowan Helping Ministries Board Chair Steve Drinkard welcomed more than 200 volunteers and thanked them for their commitment to helping people in need. Drinkard told the crowd he was thankful that in a time of political, social and economic polarization, Rowan Helping Ministries is a place where all people can come together to respond to God’s call in Matthew 25 to “help the least of these.”
Cam Campbell, director of Resource Development and Community Relations, recognized two special volunteers plus a group of volunteers that work at Rowan Helping Ministries West. Deloris High began volunteering in 1993 in the soup kitchen preparing lunch. Over the years, she has worked in every volunteer area of Rowan Helping Ministries. Joyce Simmons, a soup kitchen volunteer for more than 12 years, prepares the noon meal every Thursday with a team of her friends.
The Rowan Helping Ministries West Task Force was recognized for the vision to help people in the western part of the county. The task force meets every other month and works together throughout the year fundraising and keeping the shelves stock with food in the Rowan Helping Ministries West satellite location in Mt. Ulla.
A special presentation of the past 25 years and a preview into the future was made by Executive Director Kyna Foster. She provided a glimpse into the past through video and pictures. She then shared with the volunteers Rowan Helping Ministries’ new expansion plans. She told the volunteers they were real troopers. “To many, it may feel like our space to serve is shrinking,” she said. “I appreciate how you adapt to the moving and changing, and changing and moving that happens as we rearrange to meet the needs.”
Foster shared the amazing journey that Rowan Helping Ministries has been through over the past year as many people worked together to bring the idea of an expansion to a reality. In less than a year, the design of a building is complete, and 97 percent of the money to build it has been raised. Most of the property needed has been acquired and architectural plans are almost finished.
“Again, we see how God has blessed Rowan Helping Ministries with talented volunteers and a community of people who want to help others,” she said.