ARI's DeHart Reveals Undimmed Passion to Serve the Most At-Risk

In a company in which exemplary stories of service seem to be everywhere, there is none more extraordinary than that of Alex DeHart. The Client Administration Supervisor left a blossoming career at ARI in 2012 to go to Brazil and volunteer at Hope Unlimited for Children, a nonprofit providing comprehensive residential care for adolescents escaping from sex trafficking, drug running, incarceration, and life on the streets. After five years in which his volunteer work had slowly grown into paid positions of ever-increasing complexity and responsibility, Alex returned to ARI a different man, fluent in Portuguese and married to a Brazilian woman, with one young child and another on the way.

Although the externals in Alex’s life have changed, the drive to serve has not. This past March Alex returned to Brazil with sixteen suitcases full of donated toys, school supplies, and toiletries — from ARI employees and others — to take to the children of Hope Unlimited. He says that this group of fifteen travelers not only came with supplies for the kids, but were able to repair and paint a house for twelve boys as well. Here are some photos of his travels.