Imagine for a moment that you have lost the use of a hand. All the things you take for granted every day like writing, brushing your teeth, holding a book or riding a bike are no longer possible for you like before.
That is the experience of over 2,000 land mine victims who lose the use of one or both hands each year. For this reason alone, hundreds of thousands – more than 300,000 globally – are in need of prosthetic hands. Most victims are not able to afford the cost, which can be as much as $10,000 in developing countries. As you can imagine, people with no opportunity to obtain a prosthetic hand become heavily dependent on others for the rest of their lives.
Enter Clemson University Leadership Summit. Every August in downtown Greenville, 24 leaders from local and international organizations arrive at Clemson at the Falls, where they will spend five days listening to local leaders, developing their own leadership styles and networking with regional organizations. They become involved in a community impact project and at the end of the week they present solutions to problems that organizations like United Way of Greenville face. Many summit attendees indicate this week is life-changing for them, giving them a new perspective as they move forward.
Without a doubt one of the highlights of Leadership Summit is the Helping Hands project. The leaders don’t even know what is coming, when suddenly they find themselves with a group of four or five team members building a prosthetic hand from a box of parts containing thirty-odd pieces of plastic and metal. As they work their way through the process, reading instructions and helping each other place parts, they begin to see a robotic hand emerge. Some team members work on assembling the hands while more artistic team members decorate the container that will hold the hand when it is shipped to the recipient. In about 45 minutes a hand is assembled and members of the teams begin to realize they are about to change the life of someone halfway around the world.
Sometimes you go to a conference and come home with a binder and lots of inspiration, but building a hand for someone in need – that’s an experience that you will never forget.
Matt Foster of M33 Integrated Solutions attended the Summit this year and said, “Building a hand was a gratifying experience knowing that we can help make a difference. Our team had this opportunity to send something out into the world that would change a life, potentially giving someone hope, more confidence and the possibility of working again.”
Pat Parker of the Triune Mercy Center commented, “I really enjoyed being part of a team where everyone used their different talents to build something life-changing. It was absolutely powerful.”
In the past several years, members of the Clemson Leadership Summit classes have built and donated hands to many waiting individuals.
Clemson partners with the Odyssey Team Organization, which provides the Helping Hand kits.
Odyssey believes that many people have forgotten the purpose or the reason of their work. Odyssey’s goal is to wake people up to their purpose every day, to help people see things from a different perspective.
At the Clemson University Center for Corporate Learning, that is our goal as well.
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Gail DePriest is the director of corporate relations and leadership development for Clemson at the Falls. Having previously served as senior vice president and corporate director for a global talent management consulting firm, she has advised Fortune 500 companies and top-ranked business schools. She lives and works in downtown Greenville.
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