Hope Week brings goodness to Illinois Valley through community projects

Hope is the feeling something good could happen.

Ax Church Lead Pastor Cameron Graper said those words before explaining the vision behind Hope Week, which is a week full of Christian volunteer projects created to benefit the community.

“We just think there isn’t enough of this in our communities,” he said. “So, the idea was, “well what if the local church could just bring that to the area?’”

Graper began Hope Week through Ax Church in La Salle in 2015. Since then volunteers have been enhancing local parks, businesses and nonprofits by completing various projects while hoping to inspire the community.

Graper said the goal of Hope Week is simple – bring goodness to the community.

“I think we have hope sometimes when other people don’t,” Graper said. “So, to be able to take that and give it to people by just going and serving to possibly inspire hope, the feeling of something good going on.”

Hope Week goes through June 8.

The first year, Hope Week completed 700 hours of community service and about $4,000 to $5,000 in projects, Graper said. This year, volunteers are expecting to be closer to 3,000 hours and approximately $30,000 in projects.

Some Hope Week projects this year include park clean ups, landscaping, painting playground equipment and redoing bathrooms in homeless shelters in many towns across multiple counties including Bureau, Putnam and La Salle.

At Peru’s Baker Lake, volunteers replaced the sand along the playground equipment with rubber mulch.

Adam Thorson, director of Parks & Recreation in Peru, thanked the Ax Church Group and said the city looks forward to continuing to work with the group in years to come.

“The project they completed at Baker Lake with resurfacing the playground was much needed,” he said. “The Parks Department and City of Peru would like to say great job to all that assisted with the work, and we appreciate the time spent and the commitment to improve our local community.”

Volunteer and Project Director Mark Schneider, of Peru, said it’s rewarding to be a part of a project that brings hope to the community.

“You get to see first hand all of the effort and the focus that people give to the project,” he said. “But it’s also a great chance to build new friendships and relationships with people from other churches or people that I just haven’t met in my own church.”

Schneider said seeing the simple smiles, the lift in energy and hope is what the week is all about.

“Whether it’s kids on the project or it’s people who just happen to be at the park or place we are working to see that it’s taking effect. That’s what we hoped for.”

Next year marks a decade of hope and Graper already has ideas forming on how to make it the best year yet.

“We want to do a big project,” he said. “We are trying to look for an opportunity to maybe invest in a community where we would actually build an entire park.”

If you’re interested in joining Hope Week or looking for assistance with a project visit https://hopeweek.online/. You can also follow Hope Week on social media, where they post daily recap videos with their projects of the day on Instagram and Facebook.