October 14, 2024 • 30 mins
“Making certain that low-income and uninsured residents of Lancaster, Dauphin, and Lebanon Counties receive health and dental care, as well as sound counsel and appropriate education is the focus of Hope Within Ministries.”
www.hopewithin.org
www.hopewithin.org
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I am Sylvia Moss, and this is Insight, a
presentation of iHeartMedia where we really do care about our
local communities and all our listeners who live here. He
who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord,
and he will reward him for what he has done.
That's Proverbs chapter nineteen, verse seventeen. My guests, they are
(00:21):
no doubt familiar with this proverb. But I can assure
you that the reason they're indeed kind to the poor
is not for that reward. It is most definitely because
of their belief and faith in the teachings of the Lord.
It is his teachings that act as the catalysts and
inspires them every single day as they tend to the physical, spiritual,
and emotional needs of many residents right here in Lancaster,
(00:43):
Levin and Dauphin Counties. So ho are these local residents,
what exactly do we mean by physical, spiritual and emotional needs?
And who are the remarkable people that make sure these
meats are excuse me, needs are met well. To answer
these questions and a whole lot more, animal Ray McAllister.
She's the executive director and Laurie Reiker Director of Development
(01:04):
for Hope Within Ministries right here in Elizabethtown.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Ladies.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
I'm so glad you're here with so much to talk about,
and we're going to start with you first of all.
What is Hope Within Ministries?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Well, good morning. Hope Within is a free primary medical,
dental and counseling clinic for the people who reside in Leicester,
Lebanon and Dauphin who are financially eligible.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Okay, tell us how it all began, because I know
this has a history.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
So the history predates me. It started by a couple
named Brian and Dundas Sturgis in two thousand and two.
They took four years to put it all together and
access all the resources, and the doors opened as a
medical clinic in two thousand and six.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Okay. And you took over when I.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Took over in twenty nineteen as the director.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Okay. And you have a nursing background. I have a
nursing pay. Okay. Is it true that there are about
ninety thousand low income residents among these three counties? Ninety thousand?
Speaker 3 (02:04):
It is true, and by now there's probably a little
bit more.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Wow. Wow, Well, let's talk about some of the services
that you that you offered these folks like chronic disease
management for diabetes. What does that mean? Chronic disease management.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
So many times we're seeing people who haven't seen a
doctor in quite a while and have ignored their annual checkups,
and by the time they actually find us they're suffering
from it got worse exactly. They're suffering from some of
the side effects and some of the build up of
complications that arise out of things like diabetes, high blood pressure,
(02:41):
and high cholesterol.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
You have vaccines for kids, we do, we for.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
School age children. We do vaccines for children program.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
And prenatal care that's huge.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
So we do have a volunteer obg y n Her
name is Virginia Hall and she's retired from her She
and we also have a volunteer gyn nurse practitioner named
Janet Ashby who's still practicing and they've been doing a
lot of our prenatal care.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Pap smears, access to mammograms and for women who don't know,
these are free. You don't have to be low income
in the Commonwealth thanks to Michelle Ridge. That's correct. But
you do offer those in they're free there right.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Yes, yes, we don't do them we refer them out, okay,
and do PAP smears on on site.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Okay, sounds good, But tell us about the dental clinic.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
So the dental clinic is that opened in right in
the middle of COVID twenty twenty Drive twenty twenty, and
that is primary dental care where we do cleanings, extractions
and fillings.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Tell us how one would qualify. You've got to be
a certain income level, right right.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
There is an application on our website, Hope within dot
org where patients or potential patients can fill that out.
They submit some of their financial data and we put
it into the computer based on householding income and number
in household and that's how they are determined to be eligible. Okay,
have to be at two hundred and fifty percent or
(04:12):
less of the federal poverty level.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Now I put that in because I'm not understanding that correctly.
Either of you ladies. At any point please jump in.
Say I'm a single person, what would I have to
be making to get support from you?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
You see?
Speaker 3 (04:24):
And that's that's what I don't have in front of
me right now. It's very generous, though, I would guess
it's about thirty six thousand dollars or less for one person.
For one person, I have to look at it. I
don't have the documentation for that in front of me. Okay,
But just to Medicaid, to be eligible for Medicaid in
the state of Pennsylvania, you have to be one hundred
(04:47):
and thirty eight percent or below. So we catch the
people between one thirty eight and two fifty the ones
that wouldn't qualify for medical assistance. Most of our people
are working poor.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Okay. You all offer spiritual and emotional counseling, but you
don't have to be under a certain a dollar guideline.
Now counseling is wide.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Open to the community, and we do that by using
graduate students.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Okay, And that's something that I want to talk about
so much to talk about. But you have an awful
lot of people that you have partnerships with or you
couldn't even think about doing this right, correct? Can you
tell us about this?
Speaker 3 (05:26):
So people are We have about thirty to thirty five
licensed professional volunteers that includes nurses, dental hygienists, doctors, dentists,
and then we have a contingency of lay people who
come in and volunteer to do reception.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
And I was going to say, everybody there's a volunteer.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
We have a core paid staff and that's just to
keep it all together.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Tell us about some of those people, either of you
at any point, like I believe that like you a
PMC Hershey Med.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Okay, So we do have in kind of agreements with
Lancaster General Hospital UPMC and Hershey where they do a
certain amount of our lab testing for free on our
patients per year. UPMC gives us a cap and LGH
and Hershey not so much that they just want to
be assured that we have added the people.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Oh sure, of course. And there are a lot of
other things that you deal with and you have support there,
like from the colleges that provide isn't it physical therapy?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Right?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Lebanon Valley College students provide our physical therapy for us.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Are you a United Way agency?
Speaker 3 (06:36):
We are not. We're not a United Way agency, but
we are a beneficiary of United Way if good. I
My understanding is that an agency is somebody that actually
raises money for United Way. We are recipients of those donations.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Okay. I'm sure you do stuff with the food bank and.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
We and we have a little tiny food bank on
our premises too, because a lot of our food banks
are limited by zip code or hours or patients can't
find transportation to them. So we do keep a little
bit in stock in the office.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Do you have any idea how many people go through
your services in a year?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
I think that we've got pretty close to two thousand
visits in a year.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Wow? Wow? And where do they come.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
From Lancaster, Lebanon and Dolphin County.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
I mean, what is their situation? Are they referred by
other agencies? Do they just walk in? What happens?
Speaker 3 (07:30):
So it's not a walk in clinic? They go through
the application process and then we assume their primary care
until they get health insurance. And that makes a lot
of the people are, like I said, the working for
We have single moms, we have people working in daycares,
part time workers. Even some of the delivery drivers that
are contracted, not employed by the actual companies wind up
(07:56):
being our patients because they're not getting health insurance because
they're not working enough hours.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I get to see, oh my goodness, this is wonderful.
Well could you sit here one or two stories without
mentioning anyone's name. How it's has been successful?
Speaker 3 (08:10):
So recently, we've started seeing a new patient who was
about sixty two years old, okay, and she's raising a granddaughter.
And the granddaughter got a part time job locally and
because that part time job gave her enough income and
knocked their household income up enough where the grandmother got
(08:33):
off her medicaid and she went several months before she
found us. And she is a diabetic and she was
very sick by the time she found us.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
We've also been seeing an awful lot of the Ukrainians
and getting them started into the country, you know, by
doing driver's license physicals and immunizations for the children so
they can get into school. And yeah, it's been the grants.
You get a lot of immigrants, a lot of immigrants
coming from the borders coming through.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Oh my, and what do you I mean? You know,
they don't have anything to they haven't gone through a
vetting process, So what do you do? You can't turn
them away, or we.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Don't turn them away. We don't. If they make it
to our door, we'll treat them and we'll care for them,
regardless of the circumstances that brought them here.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Wow, how big is your staff?
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Think about eight or nine all part time people are
you're not open twenty four hours now, we're only we
get volunteer doctors and oh well predenta.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
And I didn't ask the most important question. Where are
you located?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
So we're located between Middletown and Elizabethtown on Vood two thirty.
Oh okay, we're actually in Dauphin County with an Elizabethtown
mailing address.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
What do you need? If you had an opportunity to
talk about I mean, you're always open to financial gifts
or gifts of you know, gifts and kind for those
who might not understand what gifts in kind, like you said,
gifts in kind from the hospitals and stuff.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
What do you need cough medicine? We need supplements, vitamins, turmeric,
those different over the counter medications that people can't afford
to buy for themselves. We need diabetes strips and glucose
testing strips and all kinds of anything medical equipment you can.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Buy over the count I just thought of something I
found out I went to I've said this before. I
went to a wonderful women's conference and they had screening.
This was a couple of years ago, and the woman's
took my sugar and she said, this can't be right.
The other one took her she said, this can't be right.
It was seven hundred. They didn't want me to leave.
I had no clue. I felt wonderful found I was
(10:42):
typed two diabetic. I have a whole lot of strips
for you kids, because I have that monitor on my arm.
Now I guess and it's so much convinced. I got
to get that stuff to you. This is great. Do
you have any Laurie. I know Laurie for a long
long time and she is even worked here WHP and
she's big time in the community and doing things for people.
(11:04):
And tell me what you do. You're the development director,
So does that mean you go out and ask for
donations or can you ask for gifts in kind? Like
I would go to ups and at UPS but CBS
or something and say, hey, give me a case of
cop medicine. You know what are the responsibility?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Thank you, Sylvia. Yeah, we do have a little bit
history together. But after being in the corporate real world
for about thirty five plus years and then kind of
getting out of the corporate world, I finally found something
by way of Amory where I feel like I've really
taken my talent set or skill set right and then
put to good use, especially for work the works of
(11:42):
God and serving people. So Yes, as a director of development,
we are faith based, so obviously we don't get monies
from the government. So Yes primarily is to bring in
donations to support the clinic, but also in a broader sense,
anything that supports clinics. So if it's in kind donations,
looking for opportunities to you know, publicize who we are
(12:06):
and what we do, because a lot of people maybe
they've heard of us, but they don't know where we are,
and they don't know what we do and who we serve.
And like a Marie said, we serve everybody that walks
through the door. So we don't want to turn people away.
We're always in need of more volunteers, and I know
right now especially we could use some dentists. So anytime
we can get some volunteers, you know, dental And I
(12:29):
think people are always under the impression, like how much
time I obligated they do? You know, for the most part,
it could be even like two or three hours a
week or a month, right, some of those minimals two
three hours a month.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
We do have to be professional medical people or licensed. Yeah,
but other types of volunteers.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Oh no, we could always use other volunteers, like she
said across the board. I mean, we have a lot
of office personnel, you know that have had careers elsewhere.
We have some folks that are still working elsewhere but
still volunteer and maybe they come in an evening, you know,
to do reception work.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
It's a great thing for a retired person, it is.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Or the semi retired. You know. I was kind of
like I was kind of like semi retired. So I
had seven months because I left a large nationwide company,
and you know, during that time, I felt like I
was losing my mental acuity. I don't know relate right,
So by happens today, I always say God has a plan,
So I by happenstance, I discovered that Hope Within needed
(13:27):
director of development. And when I saw Amory's name, like
I volunteered for her at a church many many years ago.
That's how I knew Amria. So I guess like I
reach out at least got an email her and say hello,
and then we connected that way. So I think that
there's always room for people to volunteer their time and
to be part of something that's greater than themselves. And
Hope Within is definitely much greater than yourself. And it's
(13:49):
my my experiences, it's much more rewarding than doing the
corporate you know, hamster wheel right, and at the end
of the day you feel like you've actually made a difference,
or in the car that wait to go, Yes, we're
in the corporate world. You just you know, sometimes you
put all your effort into something and you kid yourself,
you say, I think I'm making a difference. You like
to tell yourself that, and then when you walk away,
(14:10):
you're like, I don't know at the end of the day,
to really make a difference. We're here, you do here.
It's a tremendous feeling. You know. Anybody that has used
the service as I Hope within, I mean, they're just
so blessed that we have such a tremendous staff. It's
a beautiful clinic. So one of these days you have
to get down and see the clinic.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Well, you know, I've always said another thing I've always
been talking about for a long long time is people
in Central Pennsylvania are extremely generous. But we got to
do something, and you were talking about the feeling, the feeling,
and I've been talking for years about starting children when
they're little, when they're little, and let them do something,
to contribute in some song, even if it's to the family,
(14:50):
and then you can breed a generation of people who
give back. It becomes part of who they are. So
or we got to talk about how we're going to
figure that one out. But there's volunteerism. You're absolutely it's
not even a job, it's not I mean, have you
had the same experience that I had. The people around
here are pretty they're up, quick to open their wallets.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yes, And I think that the challenge rate now, although
I believe that we're gaining past that, is that because
the economy has been rather tumultuous, right, I mean, I
don't know how use to describe it. And in the
past couple of years, including the pandemic, we've seen things
we've never seen before in our lifetime exactly. So I
think that even with all that said, I think Central
(15:32):
pa individual's residents of Central pennsylvani are very generous. We're
probably some of the most genous people I think everywhere
that you can certainly put their time and effort into
a good cause. So I think part of our challenge
has been just getting the word out. And that's why
we're really appreciative, you know, of your program Insight, because
it gives us the opportunity for people that haven't known
(15:55):
where we are what we do, that we're there and
we're open, you know, as Amory said, for folks that
and there's a lot of people that don't have insurance.
They don't they can't make it into the marketplace. In
other words, the ACA Portable Care Act, he doesn't work
for them, Okay, so they fall through the cracks now
they have nothing. And as Amory mentioned earlier, you do
(16:16):
have people that are sacrificing their health right and at
the end of the day it becomes an emergency situation,
then they get hospitalized. I come from the Medicare background.
We used to have individuals that couldn't afford groceries or meds,
so they skip their medication or cutting medication and I'm
not supposed to be doing that, and then it puts
their health at risk. So we kind of have a
(16:37):
very similar situation.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
I was talking about this for years. Older people, especially
older people, they buy cat food yes, they it's either
to turn the heat on or eat in the United
States of America, please, this is this is a disgrace,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
And it's become more more and more challenging because over
the past couple of years with the food cost of
food in general, right inflation, sure, yeah, has taken a toll.
So it's just very pertinent that we try to as
best as we can, you know, fill the needs of
those individuals that find us or comes through the door.
The part of the challenge is that there's people that
(17:14):
need us that don't know where we are.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Well they will. Now.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
One thing I didn't mention is that we bring that
we give everybody their own medications as well, prescription medications
for free.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Oh really, do you write the prescription of your doctor?
Of course, your doctors will be there.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
We have a pharmacy or like a dispensary on site,
and we keep the basic level of every category insulin,
blood pressure medications, antibiotics, some mental health medications, things like that.
We have that also on site for as an alternative
for people not to.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Have to make that choice. And you mentioned the applicationline.
Pretty easy for somebody to because I know older people
sometimes have a challenge with it very easy.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Well, most of the people in the United States that
are older get medicare right, right, but the older people
that we see are those that are new to.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
The country or.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Right. Oh wow, so we are we we.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
I guess we struggled with language barrier, so we put
the application also in several languages on our website.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Oh bless your heart. Well, Laurie, I wanted to talk
about something. I think all these for years of nonprofits,
everybody a nonprofits, especially if there's grant. You know how
that works. It's like they're difficult to figure out. Everybody
goes after the same money and you never know if
you're going to do it, and it's one out of
one hundred people are going to get this grant. So
(18:43):
you got to figure out something that is a profit
generating extension of who you are. And that's the troth.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Laurie, I need you to talk about the trouth. Yes, yeah, so,
And you know I can't take credit for the Trove
at all. I mean I started really with Hope within Ministries.
I started there at the end of July, so I'm
still fairly new. But there's two shop curators and that's
Audrey Shaler and Robin Bush. So Robin used to do
holiday pop up shops, so holiday shops, and let me
(19:14):
say they're both artisans in their own way. They're very,
very creative people, but they also have that marketing acuity
as well. So the pop up shop was originated by
Robin Bush, and it was always in the clinic. We
have a lunchroom area, so she would always do these
holiday shops around the holiday in the lunchroom. So that's
why they call it a pop up shop. It was temporary.
People would come in and all the money from the
(19:37):
sale of the items goes directly to Hope within Ministries
Community Health Center, so all the money comes directly back
to the center. And then after the holidays, of course,
the shop disappeared. So then they started to do pop
up shops like during spring, you know, and basically on
site whenever they could until this year when the landlord
(19:58):
who has our office for but then also has this
little annex and so it's really on the same property
site A forty seven forty eight East Harrisburg Pike, Okay. So,
as Amory said, dauphin case, I always say, it's kind
of east of Saturday's Market where it used to be
east of that but not quite into Etown, Okay, easy
to find, and the little annex building sits on the
(20:19):
same site. It's an odd shaped building we go back
and forth with maybe it's hexagonal, I don't know, doesn't matter.
It's a now permanent location for the shop. So when
I got there in July, I said, we kind of
need to name the shop because people aren't going to
know what a pop up shop is, so I'd rather
give it a name. So that the ladies came up
with the Trope short for like.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Treasure trope, right, and what do you find in there?
Speaker 2 (20:40):
So it's all unique gift items. It's not a consignment shop.
It's not a thrift shop. I always have to be
careful because the ladies are very very you know particular, yes,
because they are there artisans and so it's a lot
of upcycled items. And what I mean by that is
it's a term that I wasn't familiar with. But you
take an order dated item that was donated furniture in particular,
(21:02):
and then you redo it and you you know, sand
it down, get basic and then redo it and popularize it.
So make it more modern and updated.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
And you've sent me pictures they're beautiful. Yeah, and it's
not a normal thing you see in furniture.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Well, but that's where their creativity comes out. So you know, Audrey,
that's kind of her, you know that that's her her forte.
She really does a really beautiful job of taking furniture
that's been scuffed or bumped, and you know, as long
as its bones are still good, right, she can go
ahead and rehab it and then fix it up, painted
and decorate it and it looks tremendous.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Where do those donations come from for them? So you're
they're willing to take you Are there any guidelines.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
For the other There is? I mean, you know, we're
not doing clothing or shoes, so we're not because we're
not really a clothing shop or more of unique gifts,
unique items that and some of them are up cycled,
some of them are just items that are you know,
conditioned and then sold in the shop. And Audrey really
is are our curators as far as that is items,
especially the furniture. I kind of leave that up to her. Yeah,
(22:06):
So there's a list on the website actually on the
Hope within dot org website. There's a list of inkind
donations both for the clinic and for the office, because
we do need office supplies as well. So anything really
that is used to be able to let the clinic
run as it should, whether it's on the office side
or certainly as amor mentioned from the medication standpoint, to
(22:29):
other office equipment or as far as clinical equipment, dental items,
dental supply types, things you know, especially dental spply. We're
long on toothbrushes right now, just kind of mine and
I said down like we're low on toothbrushes and toothpaste.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
And people have Oh my gosh, I could tell you
right now, even from traveling, they give you these those.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Are perfect because that's what we give. Each dental patient
gets a care bag, a dental care bag. So if
it's a youngster, they get the dental care bag for
the for the kiddos, and then if you're an adult,
you get a dental care bag. So right now, I
put together a little bit of a flyer, and when
I get out and about and I get opportunity to
speak at churches and other facilities other venues, I kind
(23:09):
of take that little flyer with me and say hey,
if you're you talked about it. If kids need a
basic project, something simple to do, and it's a volunteer projects,
put together these little care bags or collect the items
and then we can put them into ziploc bags basically.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Okay, so you need test strips for diabetics, you need toothbrushes,
you need well.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
I clarify the test strip they have to match the meter.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
So we just can't take any old test trips. But yes,
we take a lot of the over the counter medications.
We take food that they opened, unopened and within date,
and we need stamps and copy paper. Those are the
things that we're always, you know, having to spend.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Our money on.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
And we are funded completely in one hundred percent by
donations churches, big individual donors. And I will tell you
there's sometimes that we're pretty close to the bone. But
and I have been fearful many times.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
But it's Christmas, true, yes, Thanksgiving, those are the times
of people need to give it. Okay, So I wind
your site, which is right again you guys, Oh, hope
within dot org. Hope within dot org. And I'm looking
for hours when I've got furniture that I think is
pretty nifty, but it doesn't fit in my house anymore,
or anything like that will be on the website or
(24:32):
I've got things to donate, what do you guys open
to donate?
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Well, usually we prefer people would give us an email
or give us a call ahead. Okay, the people that
actually handle those things are on the premises. Sometimes I'm
there and i'm there by myself and somebody will drop
by with a beautiful box full of china or vases,
things like that, and I don't know what we can take,
(24:57):
so I just leave it aside for them to look at.
But most the time what people are donating is very
lovely and very able to be resold.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Do you think people because that people that live in
Elizabethtown know about this, we got to get this word
out more to the whole area, right.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
I don't even know in Elizabethtown. Oh my thank we're
the best secret in the whole three county area. And
we've been there since two thousand and six.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Wow, that's that's hard to believe. But you know, you're right, Laurie.
As far as the trop you have specific dates when
that's like in the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah, so coming up October twenty five and twenty six,
and then we have November twenty second and twenty third.
Now on my wish list for twenty twenty five is
to get volunteers to help out with the trove so
that we could do least one Friday and one Saturday
a month. You know, so we're still in the early stages,
(25:52):
but that it would be My hope is that we
get enough volunteers to help staff the shop because I
would love to have it open at least one Friday Saturday.
I don't know that will ever do Sunday because again,
we work for the Lord, and we don't you know,
we reserve that day.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
He's overtime.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
That's right, well, knowing that we saved that day for
Sabbath and save that day for the Lord and all
the blessings that we have because we really are blessed.
Oh and I've worked with such a tremendous group of
people there.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
I hope within you had something that you did last
year and you're going to do it again this year.
It's called the Faithful Gift Campaign. What is that?
Speaker 2 (26:24):
So faithful Give? It's our second annual and it is
a lot of well, I guess about fifty right now,
fifty organizations nonprofits that are faith based coming together for
Days of Giving, and that is October twentieth through the
twenty second, and that's online. It's actually faithfulgive dot org
and online is under Kingdom Causes. You can click on
(26:47):
that and then all of them are listed, all the
nonprofits listed alphabetically. And the nice thing about that you
can do a secure online gift and if you want to,
you can buy credit card. Let's say a lot of
people will do gifting by a car donation by credit cards.
It's secure online giving. You can actually go through those
different organizations and do it in one transaction, right, so
(27:08):
you can give to like four or five whatever. Isn't
that Yeah, it is. It's actually they've made it really
really easy to give online and that they can do
it in one different transaction instead of you giving each
one separately and separate transactions. So hope within is on there,
you know, just go go through obviously look for each
you know, we're there. But there are at least forty
(27:30):
nine other organizations participating in that the show.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
And these are all faith based organizations.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Yes, oh correct, mainly Lancaster County, although it's a little
a little bit broader than that, I believe as well,
and it is their second year for doing so yes.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Well, there's another thing that I want to ask if
you're a part of It runs Friday before Thanksgiving. In
my old buddy Joe Bretzi, he retired from there a
couple of years ago, but he I think have started
with the was it the Lancaster County Community Foundation, didn't
It used to be called the Big Give. Now it's
called the Extra Give. I always knew what is Extra Give? Okay.
That is a whole lot of nonprofits, faith based and
(28:08):
those that aren't faith based, and it works the same way.
And I think they were up to like seven million
bucks they made. When you're it's unreil the way the
money comes in, you guys are part of that too.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
We are we'll participate in that as well. So yes,
we are part of the Extra Give. And again I
believe that's all on site and that is the Friday,
the twenty second of November, so it's always Friday before Thanksgiving.
So the shoots the twenty second.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
And for that you can go to I think it's
Extra Give dot org. It is and with you guys,
do you have a link on your website to the
Faithful Gift campaign? Yes, we did take great, great.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Great, and then there'll be one on there as well
for extra gift, so hyper linked over if you're on
the Hope Within website.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Okay, guys, I want to thank you so very much.
We could talk about this forever. The website is what
Laurie Hope.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Within dot org. There's a lot of resources on there,
including the in kind donations both for and contact information
both for the clinic as well as for the trove,
and then the shopping dates for the trove are under
it's under event, so in case somebody is looking, it's
under event.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Okay, and your local tell us where you look. It's
really easy to find Lauren, I mean, excuse me, Mary
and Marine.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Forty seven, forty eight East Harrisburg Pike, Elizabethtown on two
thirty located between Middletown and elizabethte.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
And anything you heard today. If you can't reach out
to these ladies, please contact me here and in the
iHeart stations. I'll be sure to pass that information onto you.
These ladies are making certain that low income and uninsure
residents in Lancaster Dauphin Counties and also Lebanon are getting dental,
health and other health the stuff that they need, plus
spiritual and emotional well being counseling. They're called again Hope
(29:48):
within Ministries. Ladies. Thank you so much, Amory McAllister, executive
director and Laurie Reiker, Director of Development, and remember to
catch Insight when it airs every weekend on our ten
local Ihearts stations or any time on your favorite podcast
step I'm Sylvia Moss. This has been Insight. Thank you
so much for listening. To see you next week
Hi, I am Sylvia Moss, and this is Insight, a
presentation of iHeartMedia where we really do care about our
local communities and all our listeners who live here. He
who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord,
and he will reward him for what he has done.
That's Proverbs chapter nineteen, verse seventeen. My guests, they are
(00:21):
no doubt familiar with this proverb. But I can assure
you that the reason they're indeed kind to the poor
is not for that reward. It is most definitely because
of their belief and faith in the teachings of the Lord.
It is his teachings that act as the catalysts and
inspires them every single day as they tend to the physical, spiritual,
and emotional needs of many residents right here in Lancaster,
(00:43):
Levin and Dauphin Counties. So ho are these local residents,
what exactly do we mean by physical, spiritual and emotional needs?
And who are the remarkable people that make sure these
meats are excuse me, needs are met well. To answer
these questions and a whole lot more, animal Ray McAllister.
She's the executive director and Laurie Reiker Director of Development
(01:04):
for Hope Within Ministries right here in Elizabethtown.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Ladies.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
I'm so glad you're here with so much to talk about,
and we're going to start with you first of all.
What is Hope Within Ministries?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Well, good morning. Hope Within is a free primary medical,
dental and counseling clinic for the people who reside in Leicester,
Lebanon and Dauphin who are financially eligible.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Okay, tell us how it all began, because I know
this has a history.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
So the history predates me. It started by a couple
named Brian and Dundas Sturgis in two thousand and two.
They took four years to put it all together and
access all the resources, and the doors opened as a
medical clinic in two thousand and six.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Okay. And you took over when I.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Took over in twenty nineteen as the director.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Okay. And you have a nursing background. I have a
nursing pay. Okay. Is it true that there are about
ninety thousand low income residents among these three counties? Ninety thousand?
Speaker 3 (02:04):
It is true, and by now there's probably a little
bit more.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Wow. Wow, Well, let's talk about some of the services
that you that you offered these folks like chronic disease
management for diabetes. What does that mean? Chronic disease management.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
So many times we're seeing people who haven't seen a
doctor in quite a while and have ignored their annual checkups,
and by the time they actually find us they're suffering
from it got worse exactly. They're suffering from some of
the side effects and some of the build up of
complications that arise out of things like diabetes, high blood pressure,
(02:41):
and high cholesterol.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
You have vaccines for kids, we do, we for.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
School age children. We do vaccines for children program.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
And prenatal care that's huge.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
So we do have a volunteer obg y n Her
name is Virginia Hall and she's retired from her She
and we also have a volunteer gyn nurse practitioner named
Janet Ashby who's still practicing and they've been doing a
lot of our prenatal care.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Pap smears, access to mammograms and for women who don't know,
these are free. You don't have to be low income
in the Commonwealth thanks to Michelle Ridge. That's correct. But
you do offer those in they're free there right.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Yes, yes, we don't do them we refer them out, okay,
and do PAP smears on on site.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Okay, sounds good, But tell us about the dental clinic.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
So the dental clinic is that opened in right in
the middle of COVID twenty twenty Drive twenty twenty, and
that is primary dental care where we do cleanings, extractions
and fillings.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Tell us how one would qualify. You've got to be
a certain income level, right right.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
There is an application on our website, Hope within dot
org where patients or potential patients can fill that out.
They submit some of their financial data and we put
it into the computer based on householding income and number
in household and that's how they are determined to be eligible. Okay,
have to be at two hundred and fifty percent or
(04:12):
less of the federal poverty level.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Now I put that in because I'm not understanding that correctly.
Either of you ladies. At any point please jump in.
Say I'm a single person, what would I have to
be making to get support from you?
Speaker 2 (04:24):
You see?
Speaker 3 (04:24):
And that's that's what I don't have in front of
me right now. It's very generous, though, I would guess
it's about thirty six thousand dollars or less for one person.
For one person, I have to look at it. I
don't have the documentation for that in front of me. Okay,
But just to Medicaid, to be eligible for Medicaid in
the state of Pennsylvania, you have to be one hundred
(04:47):
and thirty eight percent or below. So we catch the
people between one thirty eight and two fifty the ones
that wouldn't qualify for medical assistance. Most of our people
are working poor.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Okay. You all offer spiritual and emotional counseling, but you
don't have to be under a certain a dollar guideline.
Now counseling is wide.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Open to the community, and we do that by using
graduate students.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Okay, And that's something that I want to talk about
so much to talk about. But you have an awful
lot of people that you have partnerships with or you
couldn't even think about doing this right, correct? Can you
tell us about this?
Speaker 3 (05:26):
So people are We have about thirty to thirty five
licensed professional volunteers that includes nurses, dental hygienists, doctors, dentists,
and then we have a contingency of lay people who
come in and volunteer to do reception.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
And I was going to say, everybody there's a volunteer.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
We have a core paid staff and that's just to
keep it all together.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Tell us about some of those people, either of you
at any point, like I believe that like you a
PMC Hershey Med.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Okay, So we do have in kind of agreements with
Lancaster General Hospital UPMC and Hershey where they do a
certain amount of our lab testing for free on our
patients per year. UPMC gives us a cap and LGH
and Hershey not so much that they just want to
be assured that we have added the people.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Oh sure, of course. And there are a lot of
other things that you deal with and you have support there,
like from the colleges that provide isn't it physical therapy?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Right?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Lebanon Valley College students provide our physical therapy for us.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Are you a United Way agency?
Speaker 3 (06:36):
We are not. We're not a United Way agency, but
we are a beneficiary of United Way if good. I
My understanding is that an agency is somebody that actually
raises money for United Way. We are recipients of those donations.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Okay. I'm sure you do stuff with the food bank and.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
We and we have a little tiny food bank on
our premises too, because a lot of our food banks
are limited by zip code or hours or patients can't
find transportation to them. So we do keep a little
bit in stock in the office.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Do you have any idea how many people go through
your services in a year?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
I think that we've got pretty close to two thousand
visits in a year.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Wow? Wow? And where do they come.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
From Lancaster, Lebanon and Dolphin County.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
I mean, what is their situation? Are they referred by
other agencies? Do they just walk in? What happens?
Speaker 3 (07:30):
So it's not a walk in clinic? They go through
the application process and then we assume their primary care
until they get health insurance. And that makes a lot
of the people are, like I said, the working for
We have single moms, we have people working in daycares,
part time workers. Even some of the delivery drivers that
are contracted, not employed by the actual companies wind up
(07:56):
being our patients because they're not getting health insurance because
they're not working enough hours.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I get to see, oh my goodness, this is wonderful.
Well could you sit here one or two stories without
mentioning anyone's name. How it's has been successful?
Speaker 3 (08:10):
So recently, we've started seeing a new patient who was
about sixty two years old, okay, and she's raising a granddaughter.
And the granddaughter got a part time job locally and
because that part time job gave her enough income and
knocked their household income up enough where the grandmother got
(08:33):
off her medicaid and she went several months before she
found us. And she is a diabetic and she was
very sick by the time she found us.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
We've also been seeing an awful lot of the Ukrainians
and getting them started into the country, you know, by
doing driver's license physicals and immunizations for the children so
they can get into school. And yeah, it's been the grants.
You get a lot of immigrants, a lot of immigrants
coming from the borders coming through.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Oh my, and what do you I mean? You know,
they don't have anything to they haven't gone through a
vetting process, So what do you do? You can't turn
them away, or we.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Don't turn them away. We don't. If they make it
to our door, we'll treat them and we'll care for them,
regardless of the circumstances that brought them here.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Wow, how big is your staff?
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Think about eight or nine all part time people are
you're not open twenty four hours now, we're only we
get volunteer doctors and oh well predenta.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
And I didn't ask the most important question. Where are
you located?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
So we're located between Middletown and Elizabethtown on Vood two thirty.
Oh okay, we're actually in Dauphin County with an Elizabethtown
mailing address.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
What do you need? If you had an opportunity to
talk about I mean, you're always open to financial gifts
or gifts of you know, gifts and kind for those
who might not understand what gifts in kind, like you said,
gifts in kind from the hospitals and stuff.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
What do you need cough medicine? We need supplements, vitamins, turmeric,
those different over the counter medications that people can't afford
to buy for themselves. We need diabetes strips and glucose
testing strips and all kinds of anything medical equipment you can.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Buy over the count I just thought of something I
found out I went to I've said this before. I
went to a wonderful women's conference and they had screening.
This was a couple of years ago, and the woman's
took my sugar and she said, this can't be right.
The other one took her she said, this can't be right.
It was seven hundred. They didn't want me to leave.
I had no clue. I felt wonderful found I was
(10:42):
typed two diabetic. I have a whole lot of strips
for you kids, because I have that monitor on my arm.
Now I guess and it's so much convinced. I got
to get that stuff to you. This is great. Do
you have any Laurie. I know Laurie for a long
long time and she is even worked here WHP and
she's big time in the community and doing things for people.
(11:04):
And tell me what you do. You're the development director,
So does that mean you go out and ask for
donations or can you ask for gifts in kind? Like
I would go to ups and at UPS but CBS
or something and say, hey, give me a case of
cop medicine. You know what are the responsibility?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Thank you, Sylvia. Yeah, we do have a little bit
history together. But after being in the corporate real world
for about thirty five plus years and then kind of
getting out of the corporate world, I finally found something
by way of Amory where I feel like I've really
taken my talent set or skill set right and then
put to good use, especially for work the works of
(11:42):
God and serving people. So Yes, as a director of development,
we are faith based, so obviously we don't get monies
from the government. So Yes primarily is to bring in
donations to support the clinic, but also in a broader sense,
anything that supports clinics. So if it's in kind donations,
looking for opportunities to you know, publicize who we are
(12:06):
and what we do, because a lot of people maybe
they've heard of us, but they don't know where we are,
and they don't know what we do and who we serve.
And like a Marie said, we serve everybody that walks
through the door. So we don't want to turn people away.
We're always in need of more volunteers, and I know
right now especially we could use some dentists. So anytime
we can get some volunteers, you know, dental And I
(12:29):
think people are always under the impression, like how much
time I obligated they do? You know, for the most part,
it could be even like two or three hours a
week or a month, right, some of those minimals two
three hours a month.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
We do have to be professional medical people or licensed. Yeah,
but other types of volunteers.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Oh no, we could always use other volunteers, like she
said across the board. I mean, we have a lot
of office personnel, you know that have had careers elsewhere.
We have some folks that are still working elsewhere but
still volunteer and maybe they come in an evening, you know,
to do reception work.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
It's a great thing for a retired person, it is.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Or the semi retired. You know. I was kind of
like I was kind of like semi retired. So I
had seven months because I left a large nationwide company,
and you know, during that time, I felt like I
was losing my mental acuity. I don't know relate right,
So by happens today, I always say God has a plan,
So I by happenstance, I discovered that Hope Within needed
(13:27):
director of development. And when I saw Amory's name, like
I volunteered for her at a church many many years ago.
That's how I knew Amria. So I guess like I
reach out at least got an email her and say hello,
and then we connected that way. So I think that
there's always room for people to volunteer their time and
to be part of something that's greater than themselves. And
Hope Within is definitely much greater than yourself. And it's
(13:49):
my my experiences, it's much more rewarding than doing the
corporate you know, hamster wheel right, and at the end
of the day you feel like you've actually made a difference,
or in the car that wait to go, Yes, we're
in the corporate world. You just you know, sometimes you
put all your effort into something and you kid yourself,
you say, I think I'm making a difference. You like
to tell yourself that, and then when you walk away,
(14:10):
you're like, I don't know at the end of the day,
to really make a difference. We're here, you do here.
It's a tremendous feeling. You know. Anybody that has used
the service as I Hope within, I mean, they're just
so blessed that we have such a tremendous staff. It's
a beautiful clinic. So one of these days you have
to get down and see the clinic.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Well, you know, I've always said another thing I've always
been talking about for a long long time is people
in Central Pennsylvania are extremely generous. But we got to
do something, and you were talking about the feeling, the feeling,
and I've been talking for years about starting children when
they're little, when they're little, and let them do something,
to contribute in some song, even if it's to the family,
(14:50):
and then you can breed a generation of people who
give back. It becomes part of who they are. So
or we got to talk about how we're going to
figure that one out. But there's volunteerism. You're absolutely it's
not even a job, it's not I mean, have you
had the same experience that I had. The people around
here are pretty they're up, quick to open their wallets.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yes, And I think that the challenge rate now, although
I believe that we're gaining past that, is that because
the economy has been rather tumultuous, right, I mean, I
don't know how use to describe it. And in the
past couple of years, including the pandemic, we've seen things
we've never seen before in our lifetime exactly. So I
think that even with all that said, I think Central
(15:32):
pa individual's residents of Central pennsylvani are very generous. We're
probably some of the most genous people I think everywhere
that you can certainly put their time and effort into
a good cause. So I think part of our challenge
has been just getting the word out. And that's why
we're really appreciative, you know, of your program Insight, because
it gives us the opportunity for people that haven't known
(15:55):
where we are what we do, that we're there and
we're open, you know, as Amory said, for folks that
and there's a lot of people that don't have insurance.
They don't they can't make it into the marketplace. In
other words, the ACA Portable Care Act, he doesn't work
for them, Okay, so they fall through the cracks now
they have nothing. And as Amory mentioned earlier, you do
(16:16):
have people that are sacrificing their health right and at
the end of the day it becomes an emergency situation,
then they get hospitalized. I come from the Medicare background.
We used to have individuals that couldn't afford groceries or meds,
so they skip their medication or cutting medication and I'm
not supposed to be doing that, and then it puts
their health at risk. So we kind of have a
(16:37):
very similar situation.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
I was talking about this for years. Older people, especially
older people, they buy cat food yes, they it's either
to turn the heat on or eat in the United
States of America, please, this is this is a disgrace,
isn't it.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
And it's become more more and more challenging because over
the past couple of years with the food cost of
food in general, right inflation, sure, yeah, has taken a toll.
So it's just very pertinent that we try to as
best as we can, you know, fill the needs of
those individuals that find us or comes through the door.
The part of the challenge is that there's people that
(17:14):
need us that don't know where we are.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Well they will. Now.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
One thing I didn't mention is that we bring that
we give everybody their own medications as well, prescription medications
for free.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Oh really, do you write the prescription of your doctor?
Of course, your doctors will be there.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
We have a pharmacy or like a dispensary on site,
and we keep the basic level of every category insulin,
blood pressure medications, antibiotics, some mental health medications, things like that.
We have that also on site for as an alternative
for people not to.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Have to make that choice. And you mentioned the applicationline.
Pretty easy for somebody to because I know older people
sometimes have a challenge with it very easy.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Well, most of the people in the United States that
are older get medicare right, right, but the older people
that we see are those that are new to.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
The country or.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Right. Oh wow, so we are we we.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
I guess we struggled with language barrier, so we put
the application also in several languages on our website.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Oh bless your heart. Well, Laurie, I wanted to talk
about something. I think all these for years of nonprofits,
everybody a nonprofits, especially if there's grant. You know how
that works. It's like they're difficult to figure out. Everybody
goes after the same money and you never know if
you're going to do it, and it's one out of
one hundred people are going to get this grant. So
(18:43):
you got to figure out something that is a profit
generating extension of who you are. And that's the troth.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Laurie, I need you to talk about the trouth. Yes, yeah, so,
And you know I can't take credit for the Trove
at all. I mean I started really with Hope within Ministries.
I started there at the end of July, so I'm
still fairly new. But there's two shop curators and that's
Audrey Shaler and Robin Bush. So Robin used to do
holiday pop up shops, so holiday shops, and let me
(19:14):
say they're both artisans in their own way. They're very,
very creative people, but they also have that marketing acuity
as well. So the pop up shop was originated by
Robin Bush, and it was always in the clinic. We
have a lunchroom area, so she would always do these
holiday shops around the holiday in the lunchroom. So that's
why they call it a pop up shop. It was temporary.
People would come in and all the money from the
(19:37):
sale of the items goes directly to Hope within Ministries
Community Health Center, so all the money comes directly back
to the center. And then after the holidays, of course,
the shop disappeared. So then they started to do pop
up shops like during spring, you know, and basically on
site whenever they could until this year when the landlord
(19:58):
who has our office for but then also has this
little annex and so it's really on the same property
site A forty seven forty eight East Harrisburg Pike, Okay. So,
as Amory said, dauphin case, I always say, it's kind
of east of Saturday's Market where it used to be
east of that but not quite into Etown, Okay, easy
to find, and the little annex building sits on the
(20:19):
same site. It's an odd shaped building we go back
and forth with maybe it's hexagonal, I don't know, doesn't matter.
It's a now permanent location for the shop. So when
I got there in July, I said, we kind of
need to name the shop because people aren't going to
know what a pop up shop is, so I'd rather
give it a name. So that the ladies came up
with the Trope short for like.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Treasure trope, right, and what do you find in there?
Speaker 2 (20:40):
So it's all unique gift items. It's not a consignment shop.
It's not a thrift shop. I always have to be
careful because the ladies are very very you know particular, yes,
because they are there artisans and so it's a lot
of upcycled items. And what I mean by that is
it's a term that I wasn't familiar with. But you
take an order dated item that was donated furniture in particular,
(21:02):
and then you redo it and you you know, sand
it down, get basic and then redo it and popularize it.
So make it more modern and updated.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
And you've sent me pictures they're beautiful. Yeah, and it's
not a normal thing you see in furniture.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Well, but that's where their creativity comes out. So you know, Audrey,
that's kind of her, you know that that's her her forte.
She really does a really beautiful job of taking furniture
that's been scuffed or bumped, and you know, as long
as its bones are still good, right, she can go
ahead and rehab it and then fix it up, painted
and decorate it and it looks tremendous.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Where do those donations come from for them? So you're
they're willing to take you Are there any guidelines.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
For the other There is? I mean, you know, we're
not doing clothing or shoes, so we're not because we're
not really a clothing shop or more of unique gifts,
unique items that and some of them are up cycled,
some of them are just items that are you know,
conditioned and then sold in the shop. And Audrey really
is are our curators as far as that is items,
especially the furniture. I kind of leave that up to her. Yeah,
(22:06):
So there's a list on the website actually on the
Hope within dot org website. There's a list of inkind
donations both for the clinic and for the office, because
we do need office supplies as well. So anything really
that is used to be able to let the clinic
run as it should, whether it's on the office side
or certainly as amor mentioned from the medication standpoint, to
(22:29):
other office equipment or as far as clinical equipment, dental items,
dental supply types, things you know, especially dental spply. We're
long on toothbrushes right now, just kind of mine and
I said down like we're low on toothbrushes and toothpaste.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
And people have Oh my gosh, I could tell you
right now, even from traveling, they give you these those.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Are perfect because that's what we give. Each dental patient
gets a care bag, a dental care bag. So if
it's a youngster, they get the dental care bag for
the for the kiddos, and then if you're an adult,
you get a dental care bag. So right now, I
put together a little bit of a flyer, and when
I get out and about and I get opportunity to
speak at churches and other facilities other venues, I kind
(23:09):
of take that little flyer with me and say hey,
if you're you talked about it. If kids need a
basic project, something simple to do, and it's a volunteer projects,
put together these little care bags or collect the items
and then we can put them into ziploc bags basically.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Okay, so you need test strips for diabetics, you need toothbrushes,
you need well.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
I clarify the test strip they have to match the meter.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
So we just can't take any old test trips. But yes,
we take a lot of the over the counter medications.
We take food that they opened, unopened and within date,
and we need stamps and copy paper. Those are the
things that we're always, you know, having to spend.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Our money on.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
And we are funded completely in one hundred percent by
donations churches, big individual donors. And I will tell you
there's sometimes that we're pretty close to the bone. But
and I have been fearful many times.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
But it's Christmas, true, yes, Thanksgiving, those are the times
of people need to give it. Okay, So I wind
your site, which is right again you guys, Oh, hope
within dot org. Hope within dot org. And I'm looking
for hours when I've got furniture that I think is
pretty nifty, but it doesn't fit in my house anymore,
or anything like that will be on the website or
(24:32):
I've got things to donate, what do you guys open
to donate?
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Well, usually we prefer people would give us an email
or give us a call ahead. Okay, the people that
actually handle those things are on the premises. Sometimes I'm
there and i'm there by myself and somebody will drop
by with a beautiful box full of china or vases,
things like that, and I don't know what we can take,
(24:57):
so I just leave it aside for them to look at.
But most the time what people are donating is very
lovely and very able to be resold.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Do you think people because that people that live in
Elizabethtown know about this, we got to get this word
out more to the whole area, right.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
I don't even know in Elizabethtown. Oh my thank we're
the best secret in the whole three county area. And
we've been there since two thousand and six.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Wow, that's that's hard to believe. But you know, you're right, Laurie.
As far as the trop you have specific dates when
that's like in the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah, so coming up October twenty five and twenty six,
and then we have November twenty second and twenty third.
Now on my wish list for twenty twenty five is
to get volunteers to help out with the trove so
that we could do least one Friday and one Saturday
a month. You know, so we're still in the early stages,
(25:52):
but that it would be My hope is that we
get enough volunteers to help staff the shop because I
would love to have it open at least one Friday Saturday.
I don't know that will ever do Sunday because again,
we work for the Lord, and we don't you know,
we reserve that day.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
He's overtime.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
That's right, well, knowing that we saved that day for
Sabbath and save that day for the Lord and all
the blessings that we have because we really are blessed.
Oh and I've worked with such a tremendous group of
people there.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
I hope within you had something that you did last
year and you're going to do it again this year.
It's called the Faithful Gift Campaign. What is that?
Speaker 2 (26:24):
So faithful Give? It's our second annual and it is
a lot of well, I guess about fifty right now,
fifty organizations nonprofits that are faith based coming together for
Days of Giving, and that is October twentieth through the
twenty second, and that's online. It's actually faithfulgive dot org
and online is under Kingdom Causes. You can click on
(26:47):
that and then all of them are listed, all the
nonprofits listed alphabetically. And the nice thing about that you
can do a secure online gift and if you want to,
you can buy credit card. Let's say a lot of
people will do gifting by a car donation by credit cards.
It's secure online giving. You can actually go through those
different organizations and do it in one transaction, right, so
(27:08):
you can give to like four or five whatever. Isn't
that Yeah, it is. It's actually they've made it really
really easy to give online and that they can do
it in one different transaction instead of you giving each
one separately and separate transactions. So hope within is on there,
you know, just go go through obviously look for each
you know, we're there. But there are at least forty
(27:30):
nine other organizations participating in that the show.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
And these are all faith based organizations.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Yes, oh correct, mainly Lancaster County, although it's a little
a little bit broader than that, I believe as well,
and it is their second year for doing so yes.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Well, there's another thing that I want to ask if
you're a part of It runs Friday before Thanksgiving. In
my old buddy Joe Bretzi, he retired from there a
couple of years ago, but he I think have started
with the was it the Lancaster County Community Foundation, didn't
It used to be called the Big Give. Now it's
called the Extra Give. I always knew what is Extra Give? Okay.
That is a whole lot of nonprofits, faith based and
(28:08):
those that aren't faith based, and it works the same way.
And I think they were up to like seven million
bucks they made. When you're it's unreil the way the
money comes in, you guys are part of that too.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
We are we'll participate in that as well. So yes,
we are part of the Extra Give. And again I
believe that's all on site and that is the Friday,
the twenty second of November, so it's always Friday before Thanksgiving.
So the shoots the twenty second.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
And for that you can go to I think it's
Extra Give dot org. It is and with you guys,
do you have a link on your website to the
Faithful Gift campaign? Yes, we did take great, great.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Great, and then there'll be one on there as well
for extra gift, so hyper linked over if you're on
the Hope Within website.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Okay, guys, I want to thank you so very much.
We could talk about this forever. The website is what
Laurie Hope.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Within dot org. There's a lot of resources on there,
including the in kind donations both for and contact information
both for the clinic as well as for the trove,
and then the shopping dates for the trove are under
it's under event, so in case somebody is looking, it's
under event.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Okay, and your local tell us where you look. It's
really easy to find Lauren, I mean, excuse me, Mary
and Marine.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Forty seven, forty eight East Harrisburg Pike, Elizabethtown on two
thirty located between Middletown and elizabethte.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
And anything you heard today. If you can't reach out
to these ladies, please contact me here and in the
iHeart stations. I'll be sure to pass that information onto you.
These ladies are making certain that low income and uninsure
residents in Lancaster Dauphin Counties and also Lebanon are getting dental,
health and other health the stuff that they need, plus
spiritual and emotional well being counseling. They're called again Hope
(29:48):
within Ministries. Ladies. Thank you so much, Amory McAllister, executive
director and Laurie Reiker, Director of Development, and remember to
catch Insight when it airs every weekend on our ten
local Ihearts stations or any time on your favorite podcast
step I'm Sylvia Moss. This has been Insight. Thank you
so much for listening. To see you next week
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