Hank Klassen retires from South East Helping Hands

After 44 years at the helm, Hank Klassen is retiring from his post as board chair of South East Helping Hands.

“He’s done an amazing job and it’s going to be hard to fill the same shoes or even try,” said operations manager Ken Dyck.

“He’s been my mentor for many, many years. If it (wasn’t) for Hank I wouldn’t be into volunteering. He got me into Lion’s Club and he put me to work right away. He said that’s the only way people stay in the clubs and from there I took a little break and he jumped me into Helping Hands and I’ve been here ever since.”

Klassen said he was always looking to retire and that a disagreement recently on the board made the decision happen sooner rather than later.

“Well something wasn’t adopted and it wasn’t going properly so I figured rather than create a fuffle I would just back out and they could run it the way they wanted to,” he said. “That’s what happened. It wasn’t anything major but just some disagreements that we had. I wanted to retire anyway and this was the opportunity to pull the pin and I said after the Christmas fiasco I would just pull the pin and I would retire and that’s where it sits right now.”

Klassen said that last Christmas there were people on the financial end of the organization that were doing things that “were not kosher” and he had to “figure it out” and he said at his age he “didn’t need that kind of stuff.”

Klassen said his biggest milestone at Helping Hands was getting the building and expanding it twice.

“Well, I feel good about it. I had done my share so I had a fairly decent rapport with the general public and the businesses. I didn’t want to leave any misbeliefs that it was something internal, cards were on the table and I decided I would change,” he said about starting the organization that has been a community staple for more than four decades.

He said he’ll miss the day-to-day of being at Helping Hands and that he has been lucky in meeting beneficiaries who have expressed their gratitude.

“We had made it possible. It makes me feel better. I haven’t walked away totally. If they run into a snag I said I would help them out. I don’t want it to go to pot.”

Klassen acknowledged that there needs to be someone younger to do “the bull work” at the organization. He wants the community to keep supporting Helping Hands because without the community the organization wouldn’t exist.

Klassen has won numerous awards and medals from the Lion’s Club and from MLA Kelvin Goertzen but he also received the Governor General’s Sovereign Medal for Volunteers in 2014.

“That was good too. I was the first one to get an award like that. That was the chamber’s first award of that nature. I broke ground there too. I was the first one,” he said.

Klassen’s advice for the new board chair is to have the mind and spirit for the work.

“You can’t be judge and jury. You have to accept that this is the way it is. You can’t do everything, you can just help them and hopefully that’s enough to bring them back to where they can function on their own.”

He said the church youth and businesses have been exceptional in volunteering and financially supporting Helping Hands over the years and that the good rapport he has with them will continue.

The 81-year-old said he will look for something to do in his retirement but for now he will just relax.