Volunteering five days a week is just part of what makes Blake Henkel a pillar of the community. 

Henkel is a 31-year-old who loves being a part of the change, even without using his words. He was diagnosed at the age of 3 with autism, which doesn't always allow him to express himself through words. 

Habilitation technician Ted Wilkinson has been working with Henkel for about 5 years. He takes Henkel to the gym and out to eat. They do chores together and Wilkinson takes him to volunteer opportunities multiple times a week. 

“It’s important to de-stigmatize special needs because there's a lot of preconceived notions out there,” Wilkinson said.  

One of the activities Wilkinson and Henkle often volunteer at is the United Way of Greater High Point BackPack program with the community partner, The Salvation Army. 

Blake Henkel and Ted Wilkinson packing boxes of food bags. (Spectrum News 1/ Sydney McCoy)

The program helps pack food bags for children whose families may be insecure or not have access to food on weekends and when school is out. 

“We know that they can eat during school days, but on the weekends when there's not as much food available, parents may be working or parents cannot afford to buy food. We want to make sure that they can have things that they can eat on their own at home,” said Latoya Bullock the vice president of community impact for the United Way of Greater High Point. 

The program started over 10 years ago at the request of teachers who noticed their students going hungry and its impact on their on performance and behavior in the classroom. 

“It's hard to study. It's hard to learn. It's hard to to grow if you don't have proper nutrition and proper, you know, even the calories to survive,” said Wilkinson. 

The School Nutrition Association said almost one in five children in America live in households without consistent access to food. 

Each week there at 1,900 bags packed full of food for students in need at the United Way of Greater High Point. 

“Over 90% of our kids now, when we do the surveys, they are shown to have improvements or doing well in school now in versus before. When they first started, they were not doing as well,” said Bullock. 

Painting by Blake Henkel. Courtesy: Art by Blake Henkel

The program also allows volunteers with special needs a place to learn workforce skills, add volunteer work to their resume and can even receive gift cards for the amount of bags packed to learn money management skills. 

“In the time we've been working together, he's developed a lot of skills that he didn't have before. And he's gotten a lot better about being around people and communicating with people he doesn't know. And he's gotten,  just this job has helped him sort of develop skills of being able to to sort to sort things and to and to be able to out and interact with people in a different way. Just getting down to the community for a lot of these people can really help them and help the community itself,” said Wilkinson. 

Wilkinson said volunteering gives Henkel a sense of purpose, routine, and gives him something to do. 

“There's always something new to do, some new challenge for him to tackle and me to tackle,” Wilkinson said. 

Besides volunteering, Henkel also reaches people in the community through his artwork and is a well-known artist in the community. His work has been sold across the country. 

“He’s been able to sell his art around too, and his stories inspired a lot of people. I think he would paint even if nobody ever saw them," Wilkinson said. 

Blake’s art is available on his website, Art by Blake Henkel and Bullock says the program is always open to donations to continue helping those in need. 

"It might take them a little time to learn or they may have to, you know, develop some extra skills, you know, most special needs people can accomplish anything they put their mind to,” Wilkinson said.