Kathleen Gurney

Kurn Hattin Homes for Children

Since 1894, Kurn Hattin has helped thousands of children and their families by offering a safe home and quality education in a nurturing environment. The peaceful Vermont hillside overlooking the Connecticut River Valley was a fitting place to launch a dream. In 1894, Charles Albert Dickinson, a clergyman of great stature and influence in Boston, a humanitarian who worked tirelessly to improve the lot of the less privileged, came home to Westminster, the Vermont village where he had been born and raised. With the help of colleagues and townspeople, Reverend Dickinson founded Kurn Hattin Homes, a place where children could find a secure and supportive haven during a troubled period in their families' lives. Surrounded by caring and loving adults, the boys and girls thrived in the bucolic setting. They attended school, milked cows, grew produce, repaired buildings, sewed clothes, played games, put on musical shows, built snowmen, went to church, swam in the swimming hole - typical enterprises of a New England childhood. Over the next century, under the direction of strong leaders and a devoted staff, Kurn Hattin grew in size and reputation. Word spread near and far of the remarkable program and total commitment to helping at-risk children grow physically, intellectually, emotionally and socially. Today, some 105 boys and girls, ages six to fifteen, and staff members form the Kurn Hattin community. Reverend Dickinson would certainly feel at home at the Kurn Hattin of today.