Staff Profiles

Founder & Chairman Dr. Gary Morsch is a physician who believes every individual is uniquely gifted and called to serve others. He helped found One Heart - Many Hands in 1993 and now serves as our Chairman. In 1992, he also helped found Heart to Heart International a global humanitarian organization where he now serves as president.
 
Dr. Morsch has received numerous awards, including the President’s Volunteer Action Award, the Points of Light Community Leadership Award, the International Relations Council Community Service Award, the Salvation Army’s Others Award, the Washington Times Foundation’s National Service Award, and the first-ever Humanitarian Award offered by the American Academy of Family Physicians.
 
Dr. Morsch served in the Army during the Vietnam War and is a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve. Recently, he served in both Kosovo and in Iraq. A devoted husband and father, Gary and his wife Vickie reside in suburban Kansas City.

 

Project Director George Sisler (Orlando, FL) - Does it surprise you to know that the man in Orlando who is steering this monumental service project, who has committed his life to encouraging people to go, and do good by helping other people, is a carpenter by trade and a fisherman whenever he can find time? George Sisler is the One Heart – Many Hands Project Director.

George has been organizing service projects and volunteers for over a decade. Among his earliest assignments, in 1999 he volunteered in Mexico, assisting coordinators and leading teams.

In 2000, he joined One Heart – Many Hands in preparation for the large-scale 2001 service project in Indianapolis. 

If you have a penchant for volunteering, and were doing so in and around the Gulf Coast following the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, you might think, "Hey, I know that guy!" You probably are right. George served as Project Director for "Restoring Hope," a multi-state effort coordinated by NDR. It was during the two years following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, that George and his team organized thousands of volunteers, working on more than a thousand projects throughout the Gulf Coast.

George and his wife Heather, along with their six year old son, currently reside in Orlando.

 

 No one knows more about where One Heart - Many Hands has been, and what our cause needs for continued success than Ron and Laura Sylvester. From the beginning (in 1993), the Sylvesters were on the ground, steering operations, coordinating projects and volunteers, and guiding our organization through large-scale community service projects in Indianapolis, Mexico, San Antonio, and back to Indy again…and again. With all eyes now focused on Orlando, Laura is serving as our traffic cop of sorts, managing registration, answering telephones and emails, and looking after details that will ensure thousands of volunteers experience a smooth registration process.

 

  John & Sandy Karg

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. During his 35 years teaching high school chemistry and physics, John Karg taught that axiom to thousands of Central Ohio teenagers. Newton’s famous Third Law of Motion is even better demonstrated, however, now that Mr. Karg has traded in his lab coat and periodic table for work clothes and plane tickets.  The action, the work he and his wife now do helping others in every corner of the world, has every bit of an equal effect on their own hearts, and they'll tell you that it’s changed their lives forever. For now, John's focus is on Orlando, where he visits the homes of low-income, elderly, handicapped and single-parent families that local officials have referred to One Heart – Many Hands. John conducts thorough needs assessments and plans for the materials, time and labor that will be needed in order to complete these projects in June. We're blessed to have John and Sandy on board!

 

 

With the start of the New Year, our staff has grown to include Ron and Chris Fox. You may recongnize the couple (from Prineville, OR) from previous OHMH projects in Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Kansas City and Mexico, or from the months they served working for NDR along the Gulf Coast following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Although the Foxes have lived in the Beaver State since 1996, some of our volunteers from Fairbanks and Wasilla recall Ron and Chris as their neighbors in Alaska, where the couple resided the majority of their adult lives. Presently, the Foxes are visiting homes in Orlando that were referred to OHMH by local organizations as potential work sites for our volunteers in June 2009.

 

A few weeks ago, Philip and Alice Bough rolled into Orlando in their 37-foot fifth-wheel travel trailor (their “semi-permanent” home on wheels). The retired couple travels around the country plying their lifetimes of skills toward service projects. Their latest endeavor is helping with One Heart – Many Hands. Mrs. Bough has taken on the arduous task of organizing job site details and converting them into manageable computer data files. Meanwhile, Mr. Bough, among other chores, is drafting job site sketches that will in a matter of weeks be in the hands of teams throughout the world who are planning on serving with OHMH in Orlando, June 21-26. We’re blessed to count Philip and Alice as part of our staff!

 

Volunteer Profiles

  Susan Rorabaugh (Ada, OH) is volunteering as a One Heart – Many Hands group coordinator. For Susan, it isn’t enough though to simply track paperwork and plan the itinerary for dozens of charted buses headed for Orlando in June 2009. She’s planning on making the journey herself as well — and not alone. In tow, she’ll have what then will be her 4-month old baby — perhaps the youngest One Heart – Many Hands “volunteer” to date. Susan wants to establish a habit of service early-on for her family. “I want to be able to tell my children, ‘we started you out young.’” Susan and her husband Boyd are also the parents of 3 year-old Andrew.

   Norm and Carol Jones (Pickerington, OH) only began volunteering for service projects a few years ago when they signed-up for a trip to Costa Rica. Since then, they have definitely caught the 'service bug' volunteering in Indianapolis (One Heart - Many Hands 2005) and in New Orleans on three seperate occassions following Hurricane Katrina. Norm encourages people not to wait until after retirement. “When I have an opportunity to talk about this, I usually implore people to 'get in the boat' and start realizing that blessing now! Do it while you have kids at home; include them when you can." Expect to see Norm and Carol (and Norm's Ukulele) hard at work in Sunny Orlando, June 2009. 

   Although Orlando resident Rick Platter is a licensed contractor, he also is an accomplished volunteer recruiter. As such, he’s urging people every imaginable background and skill level to sign-up for the June 2009 service project. Rick is a veteran of One Heart – Many Hands, with three previous large-scale projects under his belt (two in Indianapolis and one in Mexico).