Judy is Dedicated to Helping People

Judy Rouse has been volunteering for five years with HOPE House. Stacy, HOPE House Volunteer Coordinator, has noted that Judy has been a reliable and consistent volunteer even through COVID and appreciates her hard work and support.

Judy’s volunteer journey with HOPE House started shortly after she retired from working as an HR manager for 15 years. “I attend Lakeside Church and Karen Kamphuis, Executive Director at Hope House at the time mentioned that the organization needed some help.” 3 weeks after she retired from her life in Human Resource (HR), Judy found herself helping people again through the great volunteer match with HOPE House.

Her highlight moment that Judy likes to reflect upon is when her past work intersected with her current volunteer work and she helped a young man find a new job. “I had a young gentleman come in and he had an interview and needed clothes for the interview” says Judy, “he came back in a week later to say thank you for the clothes and to tell me that he got the job. To have someone come back in and be grateful stood out and I told all the staff in my excitement.”

Judy is dedicated to helping people, understanding that her work in HR allows her to help people at HOPE house with building their self-worth and feeling fulfilled in life. She is seizing the opportunity she found she didn’t have while working full-time by volunteering in something she “thoroughly enjoys” and that enjoyment is paying dividends for our community.

Some personal notes about Judy are, when she is not volunteering at Lakeside HOPE House she likes to camp outside the Owen Sound area, play volleyball and golf, and spend time with her friends and family, especially her grandchildren.

While doing this interview she wanted everyone to know that she is “just happy to give back” and that “HOPE House is an organization that does an outstanding job providing services and programs to clients and that the staff and volunteers are fantastic to work with.”

We appreciate all of her work and on behalf of the Lakeside HOPE House, we recognize Judy Rouse as Volunteer of the month.

Learn more about HOPE House lakesidehopehouse.ca

To get involved, view the current opportunities with HOPE House here.