Question 1: Your church’s ministry to veterans is called Helmets of
Hope. What is Helmets of Hope and how does it serve veterans?
—- Helmets of Hope provides essential household supplies such as
cleaners and laundry products to veterans who move off the streets and
into housing of their own with the help of VA housing subsidies.
Question 2: How long have you been in operation and how did you get started?
—- About four years ago we learned that there were veterans
moving out of homelessness, but without a source for basic household
supplies. That information basically gave birth to Helmets of Hope, and
we made our first supply deliveries in December 2015.
Question 3: Tell us about your operation.
—- We work with three partner agencies – two in the Quad
Cities and one in central Illinois – to provide supplies to veterans
[COUNTIES SERVED SLIDE] in a 36 county area. We provide supplies in two
formats – in 20-item collections we call move-in kits, basically, one of
every item we provide; and in cases of product which our partners use to
give refills as the vets they serve run out. Our partners contact us,
tell us what they need, and then we deliver.
Question 4: So what have you been able to accomplish in the last three
plus years?
—- Working with three partner agencies, [SUMMARY SLIDE] we’ve
made 76 supply deliveries, which have provided nearly 16,000 items to
more than 400 veterans moving off the streets.
Question 5: And you have a fundraiser coming up near the end of the month.
—- Yes. We’re a very small church and so Helmets of Hope
operates solely on the basis of donations and fundraisers, our next one
of which will be a scavenger hunt for adults on [BASIC INFO SLIDE]
Saturday, April 27, starting at 6:00 p.m. Four person teams will meet
at our church on 7th St in East Moline, receive a list of possible
objectives for them to accomplish – items to collect or settings in
which to take team pictures. Then two hours later, they’ll come back to
the church to show us the items or pictures they took, receive points
for each completed objective, and we’ll announce the winning team. In
addition, we’ll have some gift baskets to raffle off, and all proceeds
will support our Helmets ministry. One important detail – no
reservations are needed!