Dusty brings first-hand experience to the program -- as a former street kid. He has personally experienced poverty and family drug-abuse; and clearly remembers the frustration of being too young and helpless to change his circumstances. He now works in Romania because "I am not helpless anymore and I choose to make a difference for those who are."
Dusty's father is a heroin addict and spent most of Dusty's childhood in prison. When his father was not in prison, he often stole from the family in order to buy drugs; this left Dusty, his mom and older sister in some very precarious situations.
Illustrative of this are Dusty's childhood homes, which included: Salvation Army Shelters, the back of an old milk truck and even an 8' by 12' storage shed. Dusty recalls, that at one point, they took showers by heating water in the sun all day which they then used to fill up a bag with holes in it. He also remembers, when he was nine years-old, his father stole their car -- leaving the family seven miles from the nearest grocery store. To this day, one of Dusty's strongest childhood memories is how good it felt to sit on the sofa upon returning from the 14 mile walk to get food. At fourteen years of age, Dusty dropped out of high school and shortly thereafter found himself living on the streets for a time. Finally, Dusty's turbulent childhood culminated into spending a few nights in a juvenile detention center when he was 17 years-old.
Dusty did not remain a victim of his circumstance, though, at 17 years of age he made the conscious decision to "walk the line." Consequently then he moved to Portland, Oregon to take up an offer of a place to live and a job with a construction company from an uncle he didn’t know. He took this opportunity to learn about every phase of building and remodeling. Dusty has since completed his GED. Currently, he works with his sister flipping houses and they own several rentals together. In his free time Dusty enjoys: SCUBA diving, philosophy, history, the great outdoors and traveling – having visited 14 countries.
Co-founder
