Doc delivers a very inspiring story of how one person can make a difference. His story covers many continents and tragedies with a central and simple theme of providing safe water. In today's complex world, he takes you back to the basics and points out that sometimes the simplest solutions provide the best outcome. His story is transferable to many aspects of life where mission, passion and service intersect
Doc Hendley
Global Humanitarian, Founder and President of Wine To Water, Clean Water Crusader, Top 10 CNN Hero
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Fee Range
$30,000Travels From
Boone, NC, US
Doc Hendley
Biography
Doc Hendley is the Founder and President of Wine To Water, a global non-profit preserving life and dignity through the power of clean water. Wine To Water is committed to building a holistic, community-based model by supporting the life and dignity of all through the power of clean water.
Their teams around the globe integrate strategies for social, environmental, and economic impacts through access to clean water.
Doc did not dream of dedicating his life to humanitarian efforts in developing countries. Far from it, in fact. He graduated from North Carolina State University with a communications degree that he wasn’t sure how to use. While bartending to pay the bills, he noticed the men and women sitting on the stools seemed to want to be part of something bigger. The 30-year-old Hendley got inspired behind the bar and traveled to Darfur, Sudan, and with the money raised, began installing water systems for victims of government-supported genocide.
In 2004 Hendley launched Wine To Water (W|W) from an idea that started with wine tastings and a humble donation jar. W|W radically transformed the process of bringing clean water to people in need anywhere in the world. To date, Wine To Water has dug, repaired, and sanitized drinking wells for nearly 2 million people in 53 countries. While developing water, sanitation, and hygiene solutions (WASH) in direct partnership with local leaders, WTW creates impact beyond water. This impact includes environmental sustainability, improved education, women’s empowerment, better healthcare, and economic growth.
For his life-saving work, Doc Hendley was named one of the Top 10 CNN Heroes for 2009 chosen from over 9,000 applicants by a panel of judges, including General Colin Powell, Whoopi Goldberg, Ted Turner, and Sir Elton John.
Doc Hendley is the epitome of the individual who has made a difference. Because of Doc and his organization, hundreds of thousands of people around the world have access to clean drinking water. Hendley is proof that anyone, even a “tattooed keg-tapper,” can cure what ails the world.
Doc Hendley
Featured Videos
Current: Speaking Reel
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Doc Hendley
Featured Keynote Programs
Digging for Hope
Turning Wine to Water & Other Modern Day Miracles
In this inspirational keynote, Wine To Water founder Doc Hendley teaches audiences a simple but profound principle for improving the world: do what they can with what they have. As the founder of an international fundraising organization that had humble origins, Hendley illustrates the immense power of relationships to transcend perceived barriers, proving the power of one to transform the impossible into the inevitable.
Hell or High Water
How One Man Turned Wine into Water and Transformed Customers into Crusaders
Doc Hendley was once a small-town bartender with a dream of changing the world through clean water. Through a series of simple wine-tasting events to raise funds for clean-water projects that he launched in North Carolina, he has created an international fundraising organization that provides clean water and sanitation to people in need around the world. In this speech, Hendley shares insights on how others can put simple ideas into action and use it to solve problems on the local, national, and international level.
Turning Passion Into Action
The Wine To Water Filter Build® Experience
Filter Builds engage participants as volunteers in a meaningful, impactful team-building experience that leads to the empowerment of communities around the globe through the power of clean water.
The WTW Filter Build® Experience offers a meaningful, hands-on approach to impacting communities around the world with clean water. Whether your Filter Build® event is for a team of 25, a wedding party of 100, a reunion of 350 classmates, or 14,000 co-workers and vendors meeting up at your global conference – this team-building, purpose-driven event is a great way to build relationships, purpose, and passion as you connect and give back.
In just 5 minutes, you have the power to change someone’s life for generations.
Doc Hendley
Featured Book
Wine to Water: How One Man Saved Himself While Trying to Save the World
by Doc Hendley
The captivating story of an ordinary bartender turned humanitarian who’s changing the world through clean water.
Doc Hendley never set out to be a hero. A small-town bartender, Doc loved his Harley, music, and booze. Then he learned about the world’s water crisis, and decided to help by hosting fundraisers. But he wanted to do more and soon found himself traveling to one of the world’s most dangerous hot spots: Darfur, Sudan.
Doc was immediately cast into a crisis zone. The Sudanese government was wiping out entire villages through horrific state-sponsored genocide—and one of the chief weapons was water. By dumping corpses in water sources and shooting up water bladders, Janjaweed terrorists doomed hundreds of thousands of citizens to dehydration, disease, and death.
At just twenty-five years old, Doc was inexperienced, untrained, and in constant danger—but he stepped up to save lives. Alternatively begging international organizations for funding and dodging trigger-happy Janjaweed, Doc began drilling and repairing wells, bringing drinking water to those who desperately needed it. Wine to Water is his story about braving tribal warfare in far-flung regions of the world, and an inspirational tale of how one ordinary person can make a difference.
Doc Hendley
Featured Reviews
Doc Hendley
Featured Articles & Resources
Non-profit Founder Honored in Charity Book
Acclaimed photographer, John Russo, recently compiled a book titled "100 Making A Difference" that focuses on 100 different people who are changing the world through...
The Importance Finding Your True Passion and The World's Water Crisis [INTERVIEW]
Skype Interview with Premiere Vice President, Ryan Giffen.
Doc did not dream of dedicating his life to humanitarian efforts in developing countries. Far from it,...
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