Laura Brusseau ’04 (left) and Jessica Dutille ’03, ’04G at the Pemi Youth Center in downtown Plymouth, N.H.
Laura Brusseau and Jessica Dutille have established a new foundation to help young people achieve their dreams.
“We are simply two small-town women yearning to make a difference.” That is how Laura Brusseau ’04 and Jessica Orf Dutille ’03, ’04G described themselves. But they aren’t satisfied to simply yearn. Still in their early twenties, these PSU alumnae are taking steps to change the lives of at-risk youth.
Brusseau and Dutille have a lot in common. Both are from small New England towns, both from close-knit families. Both fell in love with Plymouth State at first sight, and both took full advantage of PSU’s opportunities for volunteerism and service. Brusseau majored in social science education. Today she teaches ninth-grade at Laconia High School and volunteers as a tutor at the Lakes Region Teen Center. Dutille majored in business and then stayed at PSU to complete her MBA. She and her husband, Bryan, live in the town of Plymouth, where Dutille serves as executive director of the Pemi Youth Center.
Dutille and Brusseau got to know each other on a bus to Valdosta, Ga. They were participating in Alternative Spring Break, building a house for Habitat for Humanity. They discovered they had similar values and the same desire to change the world. They talked about joining forces to do something, but at that point, it was just an indefinite dream for the indefinite future.
“My parents taught me the importance of giving, and treating everyone as equals,” Brusseau recalled. “I took that into my everyday life and assumed everyone was raised as I was. When I began teaching and I saw the faces of despair and hopelessness, it made me want to make a difference.”
In working with kids who were at risk for dropping out, Brusseau talked to them about character, civic responsibility and their ability to achieve their goals and make a difference in the world. One day, a teenage girl challenged her, asking what she was doing to affect the world.
Brusseau decided it was time to put her own dreams into action. That night, she worked on a mission statement that would describe what she wanted to accomplish. Then she called Dutille with an invitation to be her partner. “Jessica has a lot of passion for life and for youth, and with her business degree, great ideas and our friendship, she was the perfect choice to be a partner.”
For Dutille, this was the fulfillment of a lifelong desire, one that had only intensified after having a child herself. “Like Laura, I was raised in a very loving home by two incredible parents. As a child, I was worried about children my age who didn’t have homes or food, or parents to take care of them. It wasn’t until I moved away to college that I came to fully understand and appreciate all the wonderful opportunities that my parents gave to me through their love. I decided that I couldn’t just spend my life worrying about children, I had to make a difference in their lives.”
Both young women were shocked at the difficulties faced daily by the kids they worked with. So they created the Faith, Hope and Love Foundation, whose mission is “to bring relief to children and youth suffering from poverty, hunger or homelessness, and to bring them hope, through faith and love, so that they may accomplish all of their dreams.”
Dutille and Brusseau have registered this new foundation as a not-for-profit organization, are applying for 501(c)3 status and putting together a board of directors. They have recruited volunteers (most are PSU students), established a Web site and are raising funds. Their current goal is to make a significant gift to an organization or agency that works with children and youth, as well as direct grants for such things as summer camp fees, prom dresses or other items that would enhance the lives of children living in poverty, which might not otherwise be within their reach.
If, as these young women believe, one person can truly make a difference in the world, imagine what two can do.
