Helping local neighbors help each other

CINDY WOOD/independent feature writer

Love thy neighbor. It’s a simple concept, but one that is oftentimes forgotten in today’s busy world. Lindsay Hotmire is hoping to change that.

Hotmire is currently serving as executive director of NeighborLink Van Wert, a newly formed non-profit organization that is striving to meet the growing needs of Van Wert County. Hotmire’s involvement began simply enough one day as the Hotmire family, with kids in tow, were attempting to reach out and do a good deed. It wasn’t as easy as they had anticipated.

“My husband and I set out with our four kids and we were responding to a leaf raking challenge, so we drove around looking for someone’s yard to rake, and we knocked on door after door, and nobody would answer,” Hotmire said. “We drove around for two hours, and we never ended up raking a single yard, because people just don’t expect someone to offer a service for free. We realized there needed to be a network where people could make their needs known, and where people could go and realize those needs actually existed.”

Enter NeighborLink Van Wert, an offshoot of a similar volunteer initiative in Fort Wayne, Ind., where the Hotmires attend church. Recognizing the growing need from families in her own community, Hotmire began the process of forming Van Wert’s own neighbor link. Over the past three months, Hotmire has been putting the finishing touches on the program’s web site and also recently obtained 501(c)(3) non-profit status for the organization.

Hotmire stressed that the initiative’s biggest benefit is that there are no strings attached. There are no income qualifications, age limits, etc. The only criteria, Hotmire said, is that a person has a need. “Anyone can ask for help and they don’t need to go through a screening process before they can qualify,” she noted, adding that members of the community can post any type of projects to the website.

Once a project is posted, community volunteers have a number of ways to get involved. Basic accounts can be set up to actually post a project to the NeighborLink website. “A person would say I have this need, or I know a person who has a need. They can then post the project to the website to let people know of this specific need,” Hotmire said.

Once a project is posted, volunteers are secured, which is the next level of involvement. Volunteers can only get involved once a “coach” is selected for the project.

“A coach is a person that has the most access to the site, and they essentially serve as the team leader,” Hotmire said. “A coach would accept the project and organize it from start to finish. The coach would assemble the team and the materials necessary and see the project through to completion.”

There are currently two pending projects listed on the website, and Hotmire said they are substantial projects that would require volunteers with certain skillsets. The first project asks for assistance in removing mold from a bathroom and replacement of a shower. The second project involves a 21-year-old girl on a ventilator and tracheostomy. Additional electrical equipment in the home includes a suction machine, feeding pump, cough assistance machine, pulse oximeter, air purifier, electrical hospital bed, and humidifier.

The problem: There are currently only three outlets in the room, and the family needs help in acquiring additional outlets and/or a breaker placed in the room. The family is able and willing to purchase the supplies needed for the outlets.

There also is no generator in the home for emergency electrical back-up.

Both projects are substantial, Hotmire said, but she is hoping there are volunteers in the county who can come to the assistance of these families. “These projects are huge,” she said. “The one project has a bathroom that basically needs gutted and redone, and both of these projects actually require a certain level of skill out of the volunteer.”

Hotmire stressed, though, that any type of project could be placed on the website, whether it’s a major roofing job or a much smaller need, such as a yard needing cleaned up after the winter.

There is no compensation available to volunteers, but it would certainly make a person feel good to help out a friend in need, she said. “I’m not an extrovert by nature, so it’s not like me to just knock on someone’s door and ask if they need help. That just isn’t natural for me,” Hotmire said. “But to do something like this just makes it so much easier for people to both ask and give help that is so badly needed.

“That’s how NeighborLink kind of came into existence,” she added, “through my personal experience of realizing how hard it is just to reach out to someone.”

People in the community who want to help, but are unable to do so, can donate financially to the non-profit organization. Funds raised would assist projects through the purchase of materials.

“There will be projects that would require money, but at this point, it’s really up to the volunteers to pull everything together,” Hotmire said. “If a coach takes on a project, it’s up to that person to pull the funds together to make sure the project will be completed.

“Down the road, it’s our goal to have funding that we could at least assist in those projects,” she added. “Businesses can help by donating materials, or at least giving the volunteers a discount.”

While Hotmire is hoping businesses, individuals and service clubs in the community get behind the initiative, the root of NeighborLink is faith-based, and she’s hoping to see a good response from area churches.

“It is faith-based, but it’s not exclusive to churches,” Hotmire said. “We don’t belong to one specific denomination, and you don’t necessarily need to be involved in a church to get involved in NeighborLink.

“But because it is faith-based, our foundation is the church community,” she added.

Getting the project up and running has been time-consuming and a lot of work for Hotmire, who is not financially compensated in any way. Hotmire got involved to help her community, and she hopes others will follow her lead.

“It is a slow process, but right now we’re just trying to get the word out, and get people to get involved,” she explained, adding that although the project is managed online, those without computer access can give Hotmire a call to post a project or volunteer for one.

“We are not entirely dependent on the site for someone to get involved,” Hotmire noted. “If there is a group of volunteers who want to help, they can always just call and volunteer, and that will start the ball rolling.”

At the end of the day, she said, NeighborLink Van Wert is simply about neighbors helping neighbors in order to better the community they live in.

“All it takes is a 10-minute drive around Van Wert to see that there are tremendous needs going unmet,” Hotmire said. “People in this community should realize that there are people among us who are hungry, and people who have gone without operable plumbing all winter.

“I guess there’s always the option to stay in the dark and assume that everything is fine, but it’s not,” she went on to say. “Both my husband and I have lived here our whole lives, and we feel like if we’re going to live here, we need to contribute to the overall good of the community.”

For more information on NeighborLink Van Wert, visit www.nlvw.org or give Hotmire a call at 419.605.3557.