Doc Hendley
- Founder and President of Wine To Water
- Dedicated to providing clean water to the needy around the world
- CNN Hero, 2009
Travels From
North Carolina
Doc Hendley Speaker Biography
Doc Hendley is the founder and president of Wine To Water.
In 2003 he dreamed up the concept of the organization while bartending and playing music in nightclubs around Raleigh, North Carolina. In January of 2004 the first fundraiser was held and by August of that same year Doc was living in Darfur, Sudan installing water systems for victims of the government supported genocide.
When Doc returned home in August of 2005 the haunting memories of what he had seen in Darfur drove him to continue building the organization he started two years before. In 2007, after working two jobs and volunteering his time for over three years, Wine To Water became an official 501 (c)(3) and Doc's dream finally became a reality. "When the idea came to me to start Wine To Water the only real world job experience I had was tending bar. I dreamed of building an organization that fought water related death and disease using completely different methods than anyone else. So I started raising money to fight this water epidemic the best way I knew how, by pouring wine and playing music."
Doc Hendley's work aims to help the 1.1 billion people worldwide who lack access to clean water, a figure estimated by the World Health Organization. Nearly two-thirds of that group lives in Asia. In sub-Saharan Africa, 42 percent of the population lives without yard taps, household connections or other improvements to sanitize water.
Unclean water is the number one killer of children in the world. Water borne illnesses kill far more children than HIV/AIDS and Malaria combined. Every 15 seconds a child dies from unclean water.
Doc's dream, and now the goal of Wine To Water, is to quench the thirst of the needy in a way that sets them apart from the rest of the world. "If anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward." (Matthew 10:42)
Wine To Water is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to providing clean water to needy people around the world. Trained in Sudan by Samaritan's Purse, Hendley worked in dozens of refugee camps, often inside the United Nations' dangerous "no-go" zones, distributing water or chlorine tablets to people with only plastic sheeting for shelter.
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 Gen. Colin Powell, Whoopi Goldberg, Ted Turner and Sir Elton John) Hendley calls himself proof that anyone, even a tattooed keg-tapper, can cure what ails the world.
"There is one thing that rings true every time I get the pleasure of hearing Doc Hendley speak--his passion comes through and hits you like nothing you've ever experienced in your lifetime. It's not just the way he interacts with the audience, a sort of down-home person that you seem to already know even though you don't, but it's the message about improving who we are as people each and every day, and helping those who have difficulty helping themselves because of places they live in or the circumstances of their country. Doc brings that message of hope and seems to naturally lift every person out of their comfort chair and into the wilds of Africa or the devastation in Haiti right alongside him. You feel everything that he feels and see everything that he saw. We are just enamored to be part of his world in a small way and hoping to work with him to better our world in a meaningful way."--Rich Henning, United Water, 2011 North American Managers Conference.
His book, "Wine to Water: A Bartender's Quest to Bring Clean Water to the World" (Avery:Penguin, Jan 2012), is a captivating story of an ordinary bartender who's changing the world through clean water.
Doc is very active individual and likes to live life to the fullest. He is an enthusiastic motorcycle rider and has owned Harley-Davidson motorcycles since 1997. Doc also enjoys playing his guitar and still routinely plays at local bars and pubs. Whenever time will allow, he enjoys assistant coaching for the high school wrestling team in Boone, NC.
To book Doc Hendley call Executive Speakers Bureau at 901-754-9404.
Digging for Hope: Turning Wine to Water & Other Modern Day Miracles
- teaches us to do what we can with what we have
- illustrates the immense power of relationships to transcend perceived barriers
- proves 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.
