Committee Chairs
Karen Devereux
Alice Overton (interim)
To contact the committee for more information, click here.
Purpose:
- Providing general support to the membership—especially volunteer opportunities that call for low physical participation.
HCMGA’s Helping Hands volunteer wherever they are needed throughout the association — whether it’s for the Fair Office, the ANR, or any HCMGA committee that needs an extra set of hands for low-impact opportunities.
No-dig volunteer opportunities are available across many committees, such as Membership, Historian, Seeds of Knowledge, Junior Gardeners, Community Outreach, and much more. Committee chairs gather volunteer opportunities and informs Helping Hands members of these opportunities.
- Maintaining strong HCMGA ties with those members who have limited HCMGA involvement due to health/mobility/transportation issues.
Possible projects could include Mentorship (interns, new chairs, new OALs, etc.); relationship building via handwritten notecards (thank you, achievements, get well, etc.); presenters at committee meetings; door greeters; photographers; data entry or recordkeeping; and more.
Anyone Can Be a “Helping Hand”
These members typically (but not always):
- Have a deep and/or long-term relationship with HCMGA.
- Have legacy (institutional) knowledge about the association (structure, governance); its committees; relationship with Purdue, etc.
History:
In 2023, 20+year member Alice Overton noticed that some other long-time members were not renewing due to various issues of health issues, etc., not allowing for non-physical volunteer opportunities. In speaking with another member, Patricia Pan, they got together a group of others in similar situations for a morning gathering. They had a good turnout, which provided encouragement to have more group get-togethers. Patricia came up with logos and a group name.
Those in attendance at the gatherings have gotten to know each other better, provide support when needed and share ideas. In late 2024, the HCMGA Board of Directors requested they become a committee so a year after their first gathering they are now an official HCMGA Committee.
