In 2015, Hope Week volunteers helped with overgrown weeds in downtown La Salle.

Many hours and seven truckloads later, the downtown area was clear. It was volunteer Zach Neitzel’s first project with Hope Week, and ever since, Neitzel said he hasn’t seen a single weed downtown.

Now, Neitzel is one of the leaders of the Hope Week program. He said he loves it because he can directly see how his actions impact the community, like the absence of weeds in downtown La Salle for the past seven years.

“It’s important that we do things for the community … and do things ourselves,” Neitzel said. “People appreciate that more, and it’s good for your own soul.”

Volunteers from local churches are participating in Hope Week from June 5-11, a week full of volunteer projects that benefit the community. During this time volunteers help local parks, businesses and nonprofits while hoping to inspire others.

Lead pastor Cameron Graper began Hope Week through Ax Church in La Salle eight years ago. Graper said the goal of Hope Week is not to host events or seek donations. Instead, it’s about volunteering time to fix or improve something in the community. Examples of Hope Week projects include park clean ups, landscaping, painting community centers and tiling floors for nonprofit organizations in many towns across multiple counties including Bureau, Putnam and La Salle.

Graper said these projects are condensed to a week to attract local attention and give people hope good things are happening in their community.

“We’re seeing a lot of hopelessness in our society,” volunteer Daniel Davis said. “This is trying to impart hope, and maybe it will [inspire people].”

Since the project began, Graper said they have volunteered for a total of $115,000 worth of projects. This year, they are on schedule to volunteer for $30,000 in projects by the end of the week.

While the program is run by Ax church, anyone is invited to volunteer. Graper said there are volunteers from eight nearby churches.

Amber Leibov said she joined Hope Week five or six years ago because she loves to volunteer. She is participating in a Hope Week project every day this week.

Leibov also participates in My Hope Week. Compared to the team Hope Week projects, My Hope Week is an individual project volunteers can do on their own time. Leibov made goody bags with Bible verses and gave them out to people. She said it created great conversation and interest in the church and service.

There are between 150-200 Hope Week volunteers this year. Some, like Leibov, participate everyday, while others help with one or two projects. In their first year, Hope Week volunteers accumulated a total of 900 hours of community service. That number has grown ever since, and this year they will reach a total of 2,200 hours.

If you’re interested in joining Hope Week or want to follow along, follow Hope Week on social media. They post daily recap videos with their projects of the day on Instagram and Facebook.