Dickson "Doc" Hendley helps drill a well in Ethiopia. Hendley has helped bring clean water to countries all over the globe. Photo by Doc Hendley

by EMILY MELTON
Lifestyles Editor

Larry King interviewed him a few months ago. 

Last week, it was Anderson Cooper.

He is a father, a husband and a bartender, and if he were asked, he would say he is a normal man who lives a normal life.

Featured as one of CNN’s top 25 Heroes of 2009, Dickson “Doc” Hendley is currently in the running to be named CNN’s Hero of the Year.

Hendley was selected after founding Wine to Water, a Boone-based non-profit organization that uses profit from wine sales to provide underprivileged countries with clean water.

Before it was founded, Hendley bartended for four years.

While bartending, he began noticing the lack of access to clean water and how it significantly affected communities across the world. 

“One night…I couldn’t sleep,” Hendley said. “I grabbed a pad and paper and began writing.”

The page was soon filled with his ideas of how to help the world’s water crisis.

“I figured the bar crowd and service industry would be a great resource to tap into for funding water projects,” Hendley said.

Hendley digs a well for an orphanage in Peru. Photo by Doc Hendley

Since then, he has been to Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Cambodia and Peru, among other countries.

He has drilled and repaired broken wells, installed water filters and built rainwater containment systems.

He has witnessed an execution-style murder and has been ambushed, shot at and robbed by Janjaweed terrorists.

However, seeing thousands of people given access to clean water made everything worthwhile, he said.

“More children die from water-related illnesses than HIV [and] AIDS, malaria and [tuberculosis] combined,” he said. “Clean water is imperative to a country’s infrastructure if it ever hopes to move from being developing to developed.”

Annie Clawson, vice president of Wine to Water, has helped Hendley in his quest.

Clawson once worked overseas for an international school in Bangkok, Thailand and then with Samaritan’s Purse Children’s Heart Project in Boone.

Because stress began to wear on her, she took a break from work and met Hendley shortly afterward.

“To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to jump back into non-profit work at first, but the more I learned about Wine To Water, the more I felt my heart beating again,” Clawson said. “As Americans, we take for granted [going] to the kitchen to get a glass of water.”

Clawson attributes the lack of clean water to the cycle of poverty, explaining that women and children in underprivileged countries spend their days collecting water, leaving them uneducated and pressed to find jobs.

Without education, they are unable to learn about the prevention of AIDS, malaria and similar diseases, she said.

Clawson encourages others to support Wine to Water as it gains exposure through CNN.

Votes are being cast until Nov. 19 at CNN.com/heroes and the  top 10 heroes will be announced Thanksgiving night at 9 p.m.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Show/Hide comments