Pamela Bennett poses with others as they finish their project to help the Hope House, located in Greenfield.
Provided photos
GREENFIELD — Pamela Bennett enjoys helping others and working with people to make sure their needs are met.
As the central Indiana event host for a humanitarian group called Connecting Consciousness, Bennett approached the Hope House to see if there were any projects that needed to be done.
One project was the playground. Bennett said that, at the time, the equipment was not level and a new playground was needed. Unable to provide new equipment due to being a solely voluntary group, they came up with a project that would help once the new equipment was installed.
Bennett said that in order to get to the playground, the children staying at the Hope House would have to cut in between the cars in the parking lot to get to the equipment.
“It’s important here at the Hope House that the kids and residents are safe,” said Andrea Mallory, director of the Hope House.
Mallory worked with Bennett and Connecting Consciousness to establish a project that would change the landscaping by adding a sidewalk for safer access to the playground and to change the greenery.
Over the course of two Saturdays — Sept. 2 and 9 — 12 volunteers from Connecting Consciousness, all at least 60 years or older, gathered to get rid of what was once landscaping to install a wooden sidewalk and plant a Japanese Maple tree.
In order to help save money, Bennett received the help of her brother, who is a carpenter, and also transported the tree herself, branches and leaves covering parts of the dashboard as she drove.
Once finished with the project, one resident of the Hope House was watering the tree, claiming it was his own, while another was sharing about how Japanese Maple trees remind him of his dad. The next day, it was already decorated by the residents for Halloween.
“They just took to it, and they love the sidewalk. They were using the sidewalk already,” Pam said. “You could just tell, every time they walked by they said thank you.”
Bennett said that residents now have something more uplifting to look at with the added safety for the children.
Larry Ingraham is the state coordinator for Connecting Consciousness and also helped with the project those two hot Saturdays.
“We felt a great sense of bonding and kinship to be doing such hard work together for a really great cause,” said Larry Ingraham, state coordinator for Connecting Consciousness, who was also helping install the sidewalk and plant greenery.
Across the state, Connecting Consciousness has about 1,445 members with 30 members in Hancock County. In the United States, there are more than 70,000 members and 160,000 globally.
Ingraham said that Connecting Consciousness has one main goal: to help people, spiritually and otherwise.
“Just to try and make a positive difference in the world in these chaotic times,” Ingraham said. “What can we do for our fellow man and beyond?”
Bennett said that while they will work with the Hope House for future projects, that’s not the only organization they want to help. Bennett said that Connecting Consciousness is geared toward helping organizations that help support children, the homeless, veterans and the elderly.
“We’re geared to try to help those in unique ways and we’re not a money-donating organization … We’re about physically being with people and doing things to help,” Bennett said.
Bennett said that while they couldn’t provide the funding for the new playground equipment, installing it would be something they could do to help.
Mallory said that they were able to get the funding for the equipment but are unsure of the timeline for when it will be ready to use.
“We have torn down the playground equipment, and we also received a grant from NineStar Connect to be able to replace that with a new playground set,” Mallory said.
For Connecting Consciousness, another project in the works is making Christmas cards at upcoming meetings for veterans, and possibly going to the local veterans hospital to hand-deliver cards and chat with them.
Connecting Consciousness is free for anyone 18 and older to join. To sign up or read more, visit www.connecting-consciousness.org/en_GB/welcome.
“We’re trying to do what we can around the state just to make a difference,” Ingraham said.
