Central Coast 'classics' - Tom Hope

Tom's the toast of the coast

Helping others comes naturally to retired Salvation Army officer Captain Tom Hope, who was named NSW Central Coast volunteer of the year in 2009. BILL SIMPSON finds out what makes this humble man with a big heart tick. 

His smile is as big and friendly as his huge heart. He is one of the nicest people you will ever meet.
If you’ve been fortunate enough to have spent time in his company, you won’t have forgotten the experience. It will be the big smile and infectious laugh you remember most. He loves to laugh so much that he has trouble telling his own jokes. He makes you feel good and in love with life.
He will do anything to help anybody, and it’s unlikely that it will have cost the recipient anything.
Tom Hope is his name – retired Captain Tom Hope, to give him his rightful title. Some of the qualities mentioned so far have, not surprisingly, earned him the award as NSW Central Coast Volunteer of the Year for 2009.
The award is a bit of an embarrassment for a man of humble ways. He appreciates it, but says his wife, Dorothy, deserves it just as much. And, anyway, he doesn’t do what he does for accolades.

Mr Salvation Army
Tom is a positive person – a glass half full rather than half empty sort of man. Talk to him about the 40 or so hours of voluntary work he does each week through the Gosford Corps of The Salvation Army, and he will tell you there is still plenty of time for himself and his family.
He’s not the type to complain about being busy or that there’s only 24 hours in a day. Twenty-four hours are plenty, he says, if you are doing what you love.
Tom was nominated for his award by Major Stan Evans, another full-on volunteer of the Gosford Corps. In his nomination, Stan said Tom was a genuinely happy man who lived to help others. He was loved by all who knew him.
“The only complaint I have ever heard about Tom is that he works too hard,”Stan says. “I’ve never seen anyone work as hard as Tom does for God through our corps. He is Mr Salvation Army [at Gosford].”
According to Stan, there are Tom Hope testimonials available all over the Central Coast.
“I visited one of the clubs at Davistown to sell the Warcry when Tom was away,” Stan told Pipeline.
“A lady said to me: ‘Tom is a wonderful man. I have had trouble with gambling on the poker machines and Tom is helping me to quit. When my son died, Tom was a real comfort to me’.
“You can pick up dozens of stories about Tom and how he has helped people in need.”
I remember Tom from the time he and Dorothy and their three boys, Bryan, Andrew and Gavin, arrived in Wollongong in 1969. Tom and Dorothy had been members of The Salvation Army’s Hull Icehouse Corps in northern England, where Tom was leader of what is now called SAGALA (children’s practical activities).
He formed a boys group (cubs) in Wollongong almost immediately on his arrival. The kids loved him. They followed him as though he was the Pied Piper himself.
Tom loved fishing. He and Bryan were lost at sea about 5km off Wollongong for six hours when their dinghy overturned. With the help of cans, they floated back to the beach. Tom’s biggest concern was for the welfare of the people who had been searching for him.  
He has a reputation of being a doer. Dorothy says Tom has always been hands-on. If a job needs doing and Tom thinks he can do it, then he will do it.

Active retirement
Tom and Dorothy became territorial envoys in 1984, then auxiliary captains and finally captains, serving at Boonah, Mt Isa, Maroubra and Moree corps, and Territorial Headquarters. They retired in 2001 after 16 years of officership.
They have added 11 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren to their family. They have time for every one of them – and everyone else.
Since retirement, they have twice run Lithgow Corps for short periods, as well as Elliott Heads Outpost at Bundaberg.
They visit people at home and in hospital. Tom uses his own vehicle to run elderly women to Home League because many are on walking frames and can’t manage the corps bus. Usually it takes him two or three trips to get all the ladies to Home League in time.
While Home League is in progress, he prepares the corps Warcry publications for distribution and does the corps banking. Then, he drives the women home.
Every Thursday, he starts “work” by 4.45am at Gosford Railway Station, handing out copies of the Warcry and some friendship, and raising needed dollars for the corps community programs in return.
By 8am, he’s heading to the shopping centre for a three-hour repeat of his railway station role.
After a few hours of personal responsibilities in the afternoon, he’s back at the corps by 6pm to run SAGALA for the next three hours.
On Fridays, he picks up volunteers by 8am for more shopping centre collection before heading to his own collection point. He drops the volunteers back home at 1.30 and, by 5.30, he is calling at the local hotels, again with his Warcry copies and collection box. He finishes about 9pm.
In between collections, Home League and SAGALA duties, and home and hospital visits, he takes his turn at driving a local nursing home bus on social outings, providing counsel at the court house, leading Red Shield Appeal and Emergency Services teams, and officiating at funerals for people who can’t afford to pay.
He’s also available for odd jobs around the homes of people whose lack of finance would mean the work would otherwise go undone. That includes collecting and delivering furniture.
Everything he does is done as a volunteer. He doesn’t know exactly how many hours he gives each week.
“Someone said it was 40 or more hours. It could be. I’ve never counted,” he says.
“But it doesn’t matter how many hours it is. I love helping people and, anyway, I’ve still got plenty of time for other things.
“Dorothy reckons it’s my personality; that I can’t help myself. I love working and mixing with people, and if a job needs doing and I can do it, that’s it. I’m in God’s Army. It’s what we do, isn’t it?”

This story first appeared in The Salvation Army's Pipeline magazine in 2010.