As an AmeriCorps*VISTA member with Habitat for Humanity, Curt McDermott has helped the St. Vrain affiliate raise more than $600,000 from individual donors, recruit a variety of local faith-based partners, and develop three high school chapters of Habitat to increase youth involvement.
Curt initiated a Habitat-sponsored breakfast for local clergy to recruit all faiths into the Habitat fold and developed a donor management system that is now totally maintained by volunteers who Curt recruited and trained.
Beyond his service with AmeriCorps*VISTA, Curt serves as a volunteer teacher with Project YES, a local mentoring program, and helps coordinate youth involvement in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service. With Curt’s support, a group of eighth-graders was able to raise $1,200 to contribute to a landscaping project for some Habitat houses.
Prior to his year with AmeriCorps*VISTA, Curt served with City Year New Hampshire, where he helped set up lunch clubs and after-school programs for a local middle school program to bridge the social and educational divides between native English speakers and the growing population of children for whom English is a second language.
According to Curt: “There needs to be something for all kids – 15 minutes out of each week –
where someone asks, ‘How’s your week going?’ If that doesn’t exist, it can be a real lonely place. It feels really good to be able to be there and be the advocate for them.” |