Profile of Doc Hendley, founder of Wine to Water

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Man on a
Doc Hendley’s Wine to Water proves
the power of one to change the world
Mission
ing Charlotte, N.C., at the Ballantyne Hotel & Lodge on
March 13. Besides being a living example of the power
of one to make a difference, he will talk about doing
what you can with what you have, and how building re-
lationships can transcend real and perceived barriers.
Hendley is all about relationships; it’s how he does
his work. Often he’ll tap connections in global trouble
spots to bring Wine to Water’s help and expertise, as
he did in the Philippines after deadly
Typhoon Haiyan. “Once you get there,
you build trust and build relationships,”
Hendley says.
Other times, he just sets out where
there’s a need. “I just go. I’m capable
in Spanish and Arabic, and I can find
people to translate,” he says. Hendley
taught himself Sudanese Arabic in Dar-
fur, where “I’d have the people speak
to me in Arabic as much as possible. I
wrote it out as I heard it.”
“In Haiti, I knew no one,” he says, re-
ferring to the catastrophic 2010 earth-
quake. “I didn’t know how I was going
to get into the country because the
airport had collapsed. I went through the Dominican
Republic and figured it out from there.”
Because Wine to Water is a small operation, it “can
act quicker and be more effective,” Hendley says. It
also allows Hendley and Wine to Water to be a little
more creative in their approach. “[Haiti] was really
bad—not after the earthquake, because the govern-
ment collapsed,” he says. “But once the government
rdinary. Average. Just a bartender from North
Carolina who made music and rode Harleys.
Dickson “Doc” Hendley didn’t let what
others thought of him—and what he thought
of himself—stop him from making an impact.
His story is now well-known: How, one night
in 2003, the phrase “wine to water” kept knock-
ing around in his head and sent him to the computer,
where he discovered that nearly 1 bil-
lion people don’t have access to clean
water, and many die because of it. How
in 2004 he started a series of fundrais-
ers “pouring wine and playing music”
to aid the clean-water effort, and six
months later was in Darfur, in the Su-
dan, where he lived for a year installing
water systems and rebuilding wells.
He then came back to the States,
founded the nonprofit Wine to Water in
2007, and expanded its work to other
countries. Hendley and Wine to Water
have now helped provide clean water
and sanitation to 250,000 people in 17
countries. In 2009 he was hailed as
one of CNN’s Top 10 Heroes.
Hendley wants you to know that if he could do it, so
can you.
“I was not a great student, I was not on honor roll,
I was never a good athlete,” Hendley says. “Lots of
people view themselves like me—what do I have to of-
fer? You really can change the world.”
Hendley is the featured speaker at The Smart Meet-
By Katharine Fong
SEE CNN’S RECENT UPDATE
ON DOC HENDLEY’S WORK:

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took back over, corruption was rampant…I don’t do
well with taxes on aid to people, so I just wouldn’t pay.
I’d smuggle water filters in at night on the beach until
they got a factory to build their own. I kind of played
Jack Sparrow.”
Hendley gets impatient with bureaucracy and igno-
rance because the global crisis is so real, and so ur-
gent. He’s passionate about the need for action, as he
recently told CNN: “It takes many women and children
four and five hours, every single day, just to get wa-
ter. And then it’s absolutely filthy, and it’s making their
children sick. Diarrhea kills more children under 5 than
AIDS, malaria and measles combined. And 88 percent
of [those] deaths are caused by poor sanitation, unsafe
drinking water and poor hygiene.”
Ray Buchanan, who founded international relief
organization Stop Hunger Now in 1998, understands
Hendley’s impatience. “I see myself in him, 30 years
The Deets on Doc:
Name: Dickson “Doc” Hendley
Job: founder and
international president,
Wine to Water
Age: 34
Lives: in Boone, N.C.
Family: married to
Amber; sons Beattie, 5,
and Justice, 3
Rides: a Harley Heritage Softail Clas-
sic and a Harley Buell “for the mountains”
Music: guitar and vocals. “What I play is mostly old
classic rock or old country—Ray LaMontagne, Damien
Rice, Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash.”
Book: Wine to Water: How One Man Saved Himself
While Trying to Save the World, Avery Trade (2012)
ago. He has the same passion, drive. He wants re-
sults—he’s goal-oriented and wants to see needs met,
same as me,” he says.
Several years ago Buchanan saw a brochure about
Wine to Water while at his cabin in Boone, N.C., where
Hendley lives and where Wine to Water is based. He
reached out to the younger man.
“We had a lot in common–he was doing the same
work in water that I was doing in food. We had a real af-
finity–our views were the same,” Buchanan says. “Doc
is an entrepreneur, a visionary; he’s interested in the
broad strokes, just like me. He realized, like me, that
he couldn’t lead and manage and be an entrepreneur,
that he needed a CEO. I shared my experiences in run-
ning an organization and hiring a CEO with him and
his board.”
Buchanan is now on the Wine to Water board, and
both organizations are frequent partners, as they work
I just go. I’m capable
in Spanish and Arabic,
and I can find people
to translate...
Once you get there,
you build trust and
build relationships.
“
”

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als, corporate supporters, students and church groups
to join ongoing projects in Cambodia, Colombia, the
Dominican Republic and Uganda. Not surprisingly,
the work involves both water projects and community
development—building and maintaining partnerships.
Wine to Water will eventually extend its work into the
United States, Hendley says, but he points out that the
needs here are much different from those in a devel-
oping country. “Even in our worst communities here—
despite that huge scare in West Virginia—things are
a million times better with clean water. And when you
work on a system here it costs tens of millions of dollars
versus a few hundred dollars [in developing countries].
The issue here is the cleanliness of our water, the pol-
lution of our water. We will partner to do group trips to
clean up our water.”
Meanwhile, Hendley hopes Wine to Water will be
able to count 1 million people that it has helped by the
end of next year. And he wants to continue to get his
message out and move people to help—not only with
Wine to Water, but also “to start their own homeless
shelter, teach kids to read, that kind of work.”
His own role models are closer to home.
“My granddaddy was poor, he had nothing. He was
in a family of six people in a two-room house in a bad
part of town in South Carolina,” Hendley says. “He
started as a janitor, cleaning toilets on his knees. He
expanded that company. His job was about people and
making them happy. He became successful with the
concept of serving people and taking care of them. He
was the toughest man I ever met, like John Wayne.”
Hendley says he’s now inspired by his wife, Amber,
a special-needs teacher who also runs a dance stu-
dio. “She’s so good; how patient she is with people is a
unique gift,” he says. “You see that bleed over with her
dancers—her patience not just to teach girls to dance
but to have a place for them to come to that is positive,
instead of getting into trouble. She’s changing people’s
lives. I’m out traveling with the same passion, but she’s
happy to do it right here in our community.”
Join Us!
The Smart Meeting helps power planners make con-
nections, master skills, meet their goals—and hear in-
spiring speakers such as Doc Hendley. The next Smart
Meeting is in Charlotte on March 13, followed by Seattle
on April 17 and San Francisco on May 28. For the full
schedule and to sign up, see smartmeetings.com.
in many of the same parts of the world.
In addition to strategic partners, Wine to Water
achieves its goals through education and empower-
ment of local community members. Instead of para-
chuting in to install water systems, Wine to Water trains
locals to install and maintain them.
“It’s much more beneficial to involve locals and to
have them be the ones to do the work instead of [us]
being out there doing it,” Hendley says.
The organization raises money through donations,
the sale of its branded wines and fundraisers. “Just
One Shift” asks bartenders to donate their tips from one
shift to the cause. Last year’s event raised in excess
of $40,000 from more than 230 bartenders around the
world. This year’s event is May 12-18.
To raise awareness, funds and promote volun-
teerism, Wine to Water in January launched a new pro-
gram of service trips. The 10-day trips allow individu-
About Wine to Water
Ongoing projects: In seven countries on four
continents (Cambodia, Colombia, Ethiopia, Guate-
mala, Haiti, the Philippines and Uganda); work in 17
countries thus far. This year Wine to Water will open
a project in Kenya and possibly Cameroon.
Service trips: Groups and individuals can join
ongoing projects in Cambodia, Colombia, the Do-
minican Republic or Uganda for 10 days.
CSR/team building: In partnership with Stop
Hunger Now, Wine to Water offers events for
groups to package meals and assemble Sawyer
water filters that purify water up to 99.99 percent.
Each filter supplies 295 gallons of water per day,
enough for up to 250 people, and lasts a minimum
of 10 years.
Website: winetowater.org