Welcome, Whitney! We have a Vice President

For the first time, Field of Hope has appointed a Vice President position to the Board of Directors. Working with Chuck Hammond this year is Whitney Thurmond. A long-time friend of and volunteer with Field of Hope, Whitney began her FOH journey in 2015. She joined long-time FOH partner Vivayic on a trip to Uganda and has never stopped doing her best to help further our mission.

“I was on that trip and was so inspired by the teachers who were paving the way for agriculture education in Northern Uganda that I asked Vivayic leaders if I could lead the curriculum writing project.  Fast forward to December 2020, I was able to deliver all four years of secondary Uganda agricultural lesson plans.  I consider it to be the most important work I’ve been a part of,” Whitney said.

Whitney volunteered for FOH since 2015, joined the board in 2019, and is now FOH’s first Vice President in 2021. With this new role comes new goals, Whitney said.

“This year will be about defining the role of the Vice-President/President Elect. I’ve made it a goal to continue learning from Chuck’s leadership.  He is a strategic visionary who is excellent at engaging the entire board and valuing every person’s ideas and contribution,” Whitney said.

She said her central goals this year are to connect others with a cause she believes in.

“I believe that people want to be generous with their abundance and it’s my goal to connect others with a cause that I know truly builds independence and positively impacts education, food security and alleviates poverty in a sustainable and dignified way. Specifically, I want to grow our monthly donors, which we call Constant Cultivators because they are constantly cultivating our mission and our programs. A reoccurring monthly donation in any amount supports our ongoing programming for those we serve,” Whitney said.

Meet Chuck Hammond, our new Board President

Chuck Hammond will be serving as Field of Hope’s Board President this year, but his involvement with Field of Hope began a few years ago. Hammond became a donor to Field of Hope in 2018 after moving to Reno, NV, and becoming acquainted with co-founders, Mike & Cathy Hafner.  He and his wife and also had the chance to meet Brandy Young and Alexa Wilcox in 2018 and continued to grow his knowledge of, and relationship with, FOH.
“It would be impossible to meet four FOH people who are more enthused about the mission of FOH than the Hafners, Alexa and Brandy,” Hammond said.
Although Hammond was inspired by the passion of those involved with Field of Hope, he was not yet ready to commit to the organization, until joining the Board last year.
“Mike and Dan asked me to consider joining the board of directors in late 2019.  I wasn’t quite ready to commit, my wife had passed away in 9/19.  I finally said yes in April 2020 and was elected to the board in May 2020,” Hammond said.
Hammond is a retired financial advisor and was a partner in a business in Seattle for 30 years before retiring and moving to Reno, NV in 2017.  His time  served on several corporate boards of directors, and a non-profit board, have given him ample experience to lead Field of Hope’s board.  Additionally, he has  served on several advisory boards and on fundraising event planning committees for four non-profit organizations in the Seattle area.
“I’m excited to be involved with FOH because I was quickly able to see how much good we were doing with a very small budget.  I am drawn to the idea of teaching and training people on how to become more successful.  I fully subscribe to the old saying that if you give a person a fish you feed them for a day, but if you teach them how to fish you feed them for a lifetime.  Although I have no agricultural background, this old saying directly applies to the area of agriculture.  I am also impressed about how carefully FOH has been to be sensitive to local area customs and values rather than trying to force our western ideas and values onto others,” Hammond said.
Hammond’s primary goals for Field of Hope are to be a “wise leader and steward of God’s resources, and to find ways to grow our donor base and revenues in 2021,” said Hammond.