Mission of Hope – 1, Covid – 0.

We are in the one-year anniversary month of COVID-19, and you can select which March day to “celebrate” this worldwide pandemic. Yesterday, Emmette Thompson, the Mission of Hope’s first employee and only executive director, told the Rotary Club of Farragut how his organization has emerged from Covid.

“We were shut down for a month last year on May 1 and opened a month later. Covid affected some of our employees and volunteers, and we had to cancel our fundraising golf tournament, but you know what, we had the largest financial harvest in our history during Covid,” Thompson said. “God and the people who love us made it happen.”

This ministry based in Knoxville opened in 1999 and for 22 years has helped families and children in rural Appalachia, primarily in small towns that have suffered after many coal mines were shuttered in upper East Tennessee and Kentucky. The mines and their jobs disappeared.

Here is a snapshot of what MOH has done in this pandemic year:

  • Helped 16 ministries purchase food through Second Harvest of East Tennessee and God’s Pantry Food Bank in Kentucky.
  • Awarded 19 new scholarships for students graduating high school; celebrated the 66th MOH Scholarship graduate; has 75 scholars in the fall semester.
  • Delivered 83 loads of new and used household items, clothing, and food to ministries serving at-risk communities in East Tennessee and Eastern Kentucky.
  • Delivered school supplies, backpacks and hygiene products to 30 elementary schools serving 11,000 students.
  • Served 15,000 students and their families in 30 elementary schools through the Christmas program.

Thompson says the annual Chick-fil-A golf event is returning in 2021 at Willow Creek Golf Club in Farragut. The date is not nailed down, but it will be in September.

Right now, they are preparing for a new event – an Outreach/Give-Away Day in Jamestown, Tenn., on Saturday, March 27. He said it will be at the Jamestown Fair Grounds with a drive-thru format. Volunteers will load cars with food, hygiene and first-aid kits and Bibles. They are partnering with Compassion Ministries. They also need volunteers to help and Thompson says to call the office to sign up at 865-584-7571.

Thompson also took time to praise his late friend Ray Fisher, a major supporter and lover of MOH who also was a Farragut Rotarian. “My friend Ray Fisher had a servant heart and a passion for our ministry and was a wonderful ambassador. We miss him terribly, and I know you all do as well. He’s forever a part of what we do.”

To learn more about the Mission of Hope, go here.

To explore membership in the Rotary Club of Farragut, email Tom King here or call 865-659-3562. Tom King has served at newspapers in Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and California and has been the editor of two newspapers.