news-record.com

GREENSBORO — When Dickson “Doc” Hendley dropped out of Clemson University, he knew he was meant to do something in this life.

But the 1997 Ragsdale High graduate didn’t know that he’d find that path in the middle of civil strife half a world away.

Hendley, 30, was named one of CNN’s top 10 heroes of 2009 this month for his work bringing clean drinking water to more than 26,000 people in countries such as Cambodia and Sudan.

He’s leaving Boone again this week to finish building a well for an orphanage in Peru, the sixth country he’s worked in since that fateful trip to Sudan in 2004.

That was the year he figured out what he wanted to do with his life.

“I knew I wasn’t gonna do the normal 'sit-in-the-office thing.’ But I had no idea how it would take shape and what I’d be doing,” says Hendley, who started the nonprofit Wine to Water after his experiences in impoverished countries.

Five years later, an international contest that generated more than 9,000 nominations was whittled down by internationally known luminaries such as former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Sir Elton John.

They were looking for everyday people who were doing extraordinary work.

They found people such as a 20-year-old double amputee raising money to help children get prosthetic limbs. A Zimbabwe native who has helped 35,000 sexual-abuse victims since 2001. A school bus driver from Queens, N.Y., who has handed out more than 70,000 free meals from his mobile soup kitchen since 2004.

And then there’s Doc, who spent a year in the Darfur area of Sudan, where the lack of clean water propelled him to a new passion. He turned his college bartending experience to a new direction: holding wine-tasting events and selling wine to raise money for clean water.

“Nobody really knows the impact that the water crisis is having on the world,” Hendley says.

Nearly 900 million people worldwide lack access to clean water, according to UNICEF, an international nonprofit that focuses on the needs of children worldwide. More than 4,200 children die each day of water-related diseases, making water-borne illness the second-largest killer of children under 5, the group says.

Hendley’s organization helps build wells and install water filtration systems. But more important, Hendley says, it teaches people how to fix those systems so they can be self-reliant.

Right now, Wine to Water is training four Kenyans to build water filters that they can install and maintain in their villages.

“The other heroes, their stories are phenomenal,” Hendley says. But he can’t help but point out the virtue of his program — and the lives it has saved and can save.

More children die from unclean water than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined, he says. You can go a month without food but can’t last three days without water.

“Basically,” he says, “every 15 seconds a child dies from dirty water.”

As a finalist, Hendley received $25,000 for his organization. But the overall winner, who will be picked based on online votes from the public, will receive another $100,000.

“Which is huge for us,” Hendley says. “We would put every single dime of that toward water projects. ... If we win this, we would be able to reach 6,000 people with that money.”

Linda Lomax, who watched Hendley grow up alongside her son, votes as much as she can. The CNN contest allows unlimited votes.

“What a tribute. One of the top 10 people,” Lomax says. “All the people who have been nominated have done amazing things.

“But his story, of course I’m pretty partial, to see the progression of how this passion kind of engulfed him. ... It’s just been an amazing thing to watch.”

Hendley has been invited to his alma mater Oct. 30 to be honored as one of Ragsdale’s “outstanding alumni” during senior night, part of the school’s 50th anniversary celebration.

The honorees include a state Supreme Court justice, a state school board member and a U.S. Wrestling Hall of Fame honoree.

“He’s doing something huge,” Lomax says. “It doesn’t matter what else you send somewhere ... if they don’t have clean water, nothing else matters.”

Contact Jennifer Fernandez at 373-7064 or jennifer.fernandez@news-record.com