Hello, my name is Leah and I work for The Hope Chest of Pekin, IL.  From the time I started working with The Hope Chest, I soon found how truly blessed our community is to have this store.  A store built on donations, with one collective goal to Help Other People Excel.  The Hope Chest has ties with various types of organizations within Central Illinois, including: Recycling Programs, Community Programs, Educational Programs and charitable businesses and people.  It is with great appreciation for all of the support we’ve received at The Hope Chest, that I am able to write this message of inspiration.

      Recently I was witness to a miraculous example of The Hope Chest providing for our community.  We received an abundant donation of Pediasure Children’s health shakes.  I was told the shakes were a donation from a parent whose child was unable to drink them.  Continuing my work I was thinking to myself, how wonderful it was that my son’s favorite drink in the whole world had just come into our store.  A tap on my shoulder would soon bring me face to face with true fate.

     A woman wanted to know the price of our Pediasure.  I told the lady “We were blessed with these for blessing others - it is free.”  Her eyes lit up with joy.  The woman and I began to discuss the high cost of a six pack of Pediasure shakes at the grocery stores. As the lady stepped aside and informed me that her son’s pediatrician had recommended him to drink these shakes, my eyes saw this boy.

    His body was so small; he was unable to be properly seated in the shopping cart.  He instead was boosted and nestled in the cart like an infant would be.  He is three years old and only nineteen pounds.  The Mother and I both agree that day was a true blessing.  It is an extremely rare occurrence that The Hope Chest would receive a donation of 10 six packs of Pediasure Kids shakes.  For this woman and her son to have come into our store not even an hour after they received the donation, I can find no better words to sum this up than the Grace of God.

Welcome to our blog. We hope to use this page to inspire hope. We want to “chat” about the character of hope.  And to share some stories about hope that we get a front seat to at The HOPE Chest. What is hope? Webster’s dictionary defines it this way:

1.    to cherish a desire with anticipation <hopes for a promotion>
2.    to desire with expectation of obtainment
3.    to expect with confidence : trust

And then Webster gave some examples of hope like….

1. No one knows yet if anyone survived the crash. At this point, we can only hope.
2. I hope you're feeling better soon.
3. That's what she hoped would happen.
4. Let's hope that the strike ends soon.
5. Everyone in your family is well, I hope.

Now that is 'hope' in a verb form. Let’s see how it changes when 'hope' becomes a noun.

1.  trust, reliance
2.  desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment
3.  someone or something on which hopes are centered 

And then some more examples….

1. When they started their life together, they were young and full of hope.
2. Rescuers have not yet abandoned hope that more survivors will be found.
3. The drug has brought hope to thousands of sufferers.
4. We allowed ourselves to entertain hopes that the crisis would end soon.
5. The goal raised the hopes of the team.
6. The hope is that there will be a settlement soon.
7. The lawyers do not want to raise false hopes of an early settlement.
8. He told them the truth with the hope that they would understand.

Webster then gave this acronym for hope - Health Opportunity for People Everywhere.

Now if you have been around The HOPE Chest during our first year of business, you already have learned our acronym for hope – Helping Other People Excel. Every day we see HOPE in both the verb and noun form.

I tell myself this everyday – “Dave, you are on a journey…a journey of a lifetime.” And this blog is inviting you to join the journey of HOPE. I ‘hope’ you will!
~ Dave Craig, Executive Director of The HOPE Chest