Volunteer

Belle Six sounds like a movie star name or at least the name of a really cool all girl rock band!

Mrs. Belle Six is a Young Men’s Service League (YMSL) mom in the Highlander chapter with her son Taylor who attends Highland Park Highschool and has been a part YMSL since he was an eighth grader.

The Young Men’s Service League is a national organization and Belle serves as the Highlander YMSL chapter liaison with Voice of Hope. Most liaisons serve only one year, but Belle has stayed in the position and has blessed both organizations with her energy and passion.

When you meet Belle, you will feel that you are in the presence of someone special. She will not agree with you about that however, she is too humble.

In fact, humility comes to mind as one of her best characteristics. Her first response when we asked to do a spotlight on her was “no it really should be about the people at Voice of Hope like Debbie, Rachelle, and Brenda! They should be the focus; they do all the really demanding work.”

Her attitude is not unlike many of our best volunteers here. Humility is a common trait among great leaders and genuinely great humanitarians.

 Just two weeks ago Belle organized “operation spring break baskets” for our scholars and West Dallas families. The baskets were designed to serve as a special gift for families to enjoy during their spring break week from school.

Each basket included items for kids to enjoy with their siblings or the whole family. Things like puzzles, boardgames, and sidewalk chalk. Each basket also included a small jar filled with conversation starters. Each “conversation jar” had  questions that family members could take turns asking each other like, “what are you most grateful for?”  Questions perfect for the dinner table or even during a long car ride to encourage family engagement.

Belle and fifty-five of the YMSL mothers and sons created a total of sixty-five baskets. No two were alike, and they were beautiful and stuffed to the brim with colorful games and activities for family fun.

This is not Belle’s first time to help with something at Voice of Hope. She is well-known around the campus.

Belle has been involved in many projects here but one of the biggest was during the pandemic in March 0f 2020. With everything shutting down and kids stuck in the house Belle simply said to herself “we have got to do something to help.” And that is just what she did with her family, her neighbors and kids from Highland Park high school. “At first no one wanted to let us help because they couldn’t allow people to come into the buildings … But I talked to Rachelle Hast, at Voice of Hope, and we just put our heads together and thought if we volunteered in a socially distanced way, they could allow us on the campus to help and so that is what we did. “The truth is everyone wants to help, and no one knows how, or where to start.”

When she first came to the campus, she and her friends and kids all helped clean out classrooms the resources room & organize the food pantry. They painted classrooms and offices… “No one had to even turn in hours for YMSL they were all forgiven because of the pandemic but we still wanted to do something… why would we sit around at home when we could be serving others?”

And they continued to help through the rest of the year. She had volunteered at Voice of Hope during Thanksgivings past, but this season would be different they would have to organize boxes of food to be handed out drive-thru style or delivered to families. “We just made it work.”

Her skill for organizing volunteers in this way also proved to be just as valuable during snowmageddon in February 2021.

She said, “I had neighbors whose houses were flooding, and they had no power themselves, but they still got in their cars and drove to grocery stores to help stock the VOH food pantry. She said it was amazing and it was all thanks to God. I mean I would open my door every day and my porch would be filled with items to deliver to the food pantry at Voice of Hope. No one even wanted credit they just wanted to do something for someone else.” 

She continues by saying “No matter what position you find yourself in you can always serve others in some way… you can always help someone. And it has worked out that way since I have been volunteering for Voice of Hope.

So, I don’t know how to garden but I’ll end up with two full fledge master gardeners that are YMSL moms in our group! It’s just serendipity.”

 She goes on to give credit to employees here at VOH… “Another wonderful thing about Rachelle, she says “is that Rachelle may ask for yellow paper but if she gets red paper, she figures out how to use red paper. Everyone at VOH is so flexible.

That is the nature of God if we do what we are supposed to do He will do the rest, It’s the whole body of Christ. We each do our part.”

 And it is that kind of spirit that makes Belle Six one of our favorite volunteers here. Someone who just shows up with open arms and says, “how can I help?” and she means it.

We want to say Thank you to BELLE SIX one of many volunteers who help us in so many ways Here at VOICE OF HOPE.

You are a ROCK STAR to us!