Both Hands Project Happening in Warsaw
For those unfamiliar with the Both Hands organization, it is a non-profit group that offers assistance to widows, orphans and adoptive families. Through community projects that help widows, the organization raises money to help facilitate adoptions.
“The inspiration for Both Hands came as a result a friend of mine wrote to me,” says JT Olson, Founder and Executive Director of Both Hands, in Both Hands promotional material. Olson sent letters out to friends, soliciting sponsors for a charity golf tournament he was participating in. A friend wrote back a reply that made him think.
“One of my friends mailed my letter back to me, and he had scribbled on it,” recalls Olson. “He said, ‘JT, if you told me you were working on a widow’s house, I might sponsor you, but you’re just golfing. Nice cause, but not my money.”
“For five years that letter stuck with me, until another friend, who was adopting four children from Moldova, expressed his need to raise funds to pay for it. That’s when the idea for Both Hands grew legs,” writes Olson. “We recruited other friends, found a widow’s house in need of repairs, got local businesses to donate supplies and food, and hundreds of people sent in checks to sponsor the workers that day.”
The project proved to be mutually beneficial for the widow and the adoptive family, and was the first of many. Now, a Both Hands project is coming to Warsaw.
Zach and Amie Nelson are trying to adopt a sibling group from Haiti. The Nelsons, who already have two sons of their own, will be taking a trip to Haiti as soon as they receive their match.
To help raise money for their adoption, the family will be doing a Both Hands project. The Nelsons and a large group of family and friends will be helping Jennifer Miller with some home maintenance projects on Sept. 27.
Miller, a resident of Warsaw, lost her husband, Dustin, two years ago after a lengthy battle with cancer. The couple were married for 10 years and the parents of two children.
“The Nelson’s do not just want to raise money for their adoption, but they want to pay forward the donation and kindness of others by helping another family in need, the widowed family,” says Sabrina Heady, one of the volunteers.
Anyone interested in supporting the cause should visit the Facebook event page.