Hands in the Community volunteers give 'time and skill' to help those in need

Hands in the Community, which started serving the community 15 years ago, was founded to do what other local civic groups and charitable organizations weren’t doing.

“We were established to provide volunteers and groups that go out into the community to meet a need,” said Lester Moon, the non-profit organization’s founder and executive director.

He said those needs could be met by doing yardwork, giving a ride, building a fence, painting a house, building a ramp, or doing other things inside or outside the house for someone unable to perform those tasks. The help could also involve professional services from doctors, dentists, plumbers, or carpenters.

“All of those people give their time and their skill to helping our clients,” he said.

Moon made the decision to start Hands in the Community in 2008 at a meeting of about 100 community leaders and representatives of civic groups in Visalia. After hearing others talk about the challenges facing the city, he decided that he could best serve the community by creating a network of volunteers and resources to help individuals who most needed assistance. He had formed a similar organization, Love Inc. of San Mateo County, 25 years before.

“If I could do it in the Bay Area, I could certainly do it here,” he said.

A slow start to something great

Hands in the Community had a slow start as Moon interviewed people in the community, created a board of directors, and put together a business plan.

“It took all of the year of 2008 to get the business plan approved,” he recalled, adding that the next challenge was getting office space.

A business that was closing donated its office furniture, as well as a computer. The next day, Hands in the Community was given free office space on Whitendale Avenue in Visalia. It finally opened its doors in early 2009.

“In the early days, we couldn’t do a lot because we only had a handful of volunteers,” said Moon. “We completed five projects and helped maybe 20 or 30 people.”

The first needs the organization met included giving a ride, doing a repair, painting, and helping somebody pack and move.

“Every year, we’ve been able to increase the number of people we served,” said Moon, adding that the organization’s clients need to be living at or below the poverty level.

Initially, Hands in the Community only served people in Visalia. This soon expanded to all of Tulare County, however, before also covering Kings County and the southern part of Fresno County.

“That’s where we’re stopping,” said Moon. “We can’t be all things to all people.”

Surviving the pandemic

For Hands in the Community, the pandemic was “a good news/bad news kind of thing,” according to Moon.

“Like everybody else, things got worse – and then they got worse,” he said. “From February to September (2020), our giving was down by 98%.”

As a result, Hands in the Community had to lay off all of its staff, according to Moon. At the same time, the organization lost 60% of its volunteers.

“But then God had a sense of humor,” he added. “He tripled the number of people who needed help … but we got really efficient about helping people. We started eliminating things we couldn’t do anymore, like roof repairs.”

The pandemic also doubled or tripled the cost of building materials for the organization, as well as making it more difficult to obtain donated materials.

“Before Covid, we could pretty much walk into a lumber company and they would say, ‘Come back the next day and it’s yours,’” he said, adding that the pandemic forced a lot of businesses to cut back on their donations, especially the many “mom-and-pop shops” that had helped Hands in the Community over the years.

“When their business drops down, they can’t just give things away anymore,” he said.

Also, for the first time, many of the organization’s projects required permits and “they don’t differentiate between a non-profit and a business,” Moon said. “Everybody’s got to get a permit.”

The combination of permit requirements and the increased prices of building supplies meant that a Hands in the Community project, such as building a wheelchair ramp, cost two-to-three times as much as before, he explained. Projects also took a lot longer, some going from three-to-six weeks before Covid, to three-to-six months during Covid, to six-to-12 months post-Covid.

“So you’ve got somebody who’s waiting for a ramp to be built and they may be disabled when they call us, and they’re even more disabled by the time we complete it,” he said.

“We almost went out of business,” said Moon, adding that fortunately for the organization, things changed dramatically at the end of 2020.

“We were more profitable than before,” he said. “That is because in the entire life of my doing nonprofits here and in the Bay Area, I have never asked anybody directly for money, but my board said, ‘You need to put the word out,’ and we put the word out, and we got donations of $2,000, $3,000, and $4,000.”

Community support has grown since then.

The number of businesses that worked with Hands in the Community last year was “north of 600,” said Moon. “Those are people who donated money, donated services, and sponsored events.”

Hands in the Community currently has about 850 volunteers, estimated Moon. Volunteers worked on a total of more than 376 projects in 2023.

Publicity, a double-edged sword

Over the years, publicity has been a double-edged sword for Hands in the Community.

The first article about Hands in the Community appeared in the Visalia Times-Delta 15 years ago, said Moon.

“They did the article and in the article, it says Hands in the Community is operating in Visalia and they could use volunteers,” he recalled. “They could use people in the office and they could use people out in the community. They took a picture of this couple who needed some repairs on their roof.”

Moon said that the result of the article was no volunteers or donations, but a lot of calls from people who needed roof repairs.

Years later, KSEE24 offered to help Hands in the Community promote an upcoming concert so Moon and a few others from the organization went to the Fresno television station.

“They asked, ‘What do you guys do? What do you guys do with the money?’” recalled Moon, who told them about the work the organization does in the community.

“The phones rang off the hook,” said Moon about the response. “Can you help me with this? Can you help me with that?

“But we didn’t get any volunteers and we didn’t get more people to attend the concert,” he said.

Optimism about the future

Even with all the challenges, Moon is optimistic about the future of Hands in the Community.

“I’m optimistic because each and every day, we complete a project,” he said proudly. “Also, more and more people are supporting us today than yesterday.

“We currently have among our active cases over 75 projects,” said Moon, adding that volunteer work is available for people who want to get out into the community as well as for those who stay at home.

“We’re looking for a publicity coordinator, an event coordinator, a social media coordinator, a volunteer coordinator, and an internship coordinator and an office assistant,” he said.

Moon said that Hands in the Community is also looking for individuals, businesses, and groups, including service clubs, to help financially by sponsoring a table at an event, or sponsoring a golf team, doing one of their projects, or inviting Moon to do a presentation at a meeting. There are also internship opportunities for students.

As with most groups that help the community, Hands in the Community welcomes cash donations. Some donors give monthly while others give when they can, perhaps by making occasional $10 contributions.

“A $10 check can buy two pickets for a fence, or buy a small part or appliance,” said Moon, who compared Hands in the Community to other organizations.

“I've said this before but it's worth repeating; for every dollar somebody donates to Hands in the Community, we double it with donations from other entities and volunteers giving their time,” he said. “That’s a 200% increase.”

Hands in the Community will host “Be a Light to the World,” its 15 ^th Annual Dinner Celebration, on Thursday, Oct. 24, at the Visalia Convention Center.

To volunteer, make a donation, or for more information about the organization or its upcoming events, visit http://hnconline.org or call (559) 625-3822.

This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Hands in the Community volunteers give 'time and skill' to help those in need