Millard Fuller, cofounder and president of Habitat for Humanity International, will be at Dartmouth on Friday to give a speech titled "Students Hammering Out a Difference," describing the organization's work on campuses across the nation, including Dartmouth.
According to the official website, Habitat volunteers have built homes together with some 70,000 families in need in more than 1,300 U.S. cities and 50 other countries since 1976.
Fuller, a self-made millionaire by age 29, began his career disillusioned with corporate success. He and his wife, Linda, created Habitat in 1976 after working in cooperative housing experiments in Americus, Georgia, as well as in Zaire.
Fuller is also an ordained minister; and Habitat International is an ecumenical Christian organization, although volunteers from all faiths participate in its work.
"I love working with Habitat, you see progress so fast," said Hannah Jacobs '02, one of the chairs of the Dartmouth chapter of the organization.
According to Jacobs, the three-year-old chapter has 30 regular volunteers.
Last term, Dartmouth volunteers raised over $2,100 to fund a house in hurricane-devastated Honduras, she said. Members of the group also went on alternative Spring Break house-building programs to Washington, DC and Baltimore.
The group has also been inspired by programs at other college chapters of Habitat, Jacobs said. This term the group started a Habitat Junior program, similar to one at Yale, that aims to educate younger students about housing and homelessness issues.
In recognition of his public service, Fuller has received several awards and honorary degrees, including the Medal of Freedom presented by President Clinton, the1994 Harry S. Truman Public Service Award, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award.
Fuller will be speaking at 4:00 p.m. today in 105 Dartmouth Hall. His visit is organized by the Tucker Foundation.
